EXCLUSIVE: Korean filmmaker debuts his genre feature The Fin today in Competition at Locarno. You can watch the film’s first trailer above.
The film’s official synopsis reads: In a post-war and ecologically devastated Korea, mutated outcasts called Omegas are exploited as cheap labor. Sujin, a young government worker, begins to doubt the state’s ideology as she pursues Mia, an Omega in hiding.
Syeyoung directs from a screenplay he wrote. The cast features Yeji Yeon, Pureum Kim, Goh-Woo, Youngdoo Jeong, and Joowon Meng. A South Korea-Germany-Qatar co-production, producers on the film include Heejung Oh, Philippe Bober, and Syeyoung, who also serves as DoP.
In his directorial statement, Syeyoung said of the film: “The lost dreams of those who perished at sea travel by night into United Korea’s corroding corridors, echoing bittersweet hymns of sirens. Set in a near-future Korea, The Fin explores the contagion of fear and the making of myths.”
Born in 1996, Syeyoung graduated from the Korea National University of Arts with a Film BFA and Video Arts MFA. His first feature film, The Fifth Thoracic Vertebra, won three awards at the Bucheon Film Festival, Best Director Award at the Seoul Independent Film Festival, Special Jury Mention at Fantasia Film Festival, and screened at Sitges Film Festival.
Curiously, the film’s official credits list multiple editors, Clémentine Decremps, Syeyoung, Jiyoon Han, and Benjamin Mirguet. The Coproduction Office is handling world sales.
Check out the trailer above. Locarno runs until August 16.