Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.

It’s the 2010s in Seoul, South Korea.

Yumi is a high school girl studying at cram tests to get into a good university. She spends her spare time hanging with a young guy named Yohan who works at a local convenience store. But hanging above her is news of a terrible ferry disaster that threatens the lives of hundreds of Korean students her age. She should go home, but it’s the one place she doesn’t want to be; her single dad is dating a gyopo — an English-speaking Korean woman — and Yumi isn’t happy.  She’s also dealing with grief, trauma and puberty. Where can she find a little tenderness?

Tenderness is a coming-of-age film about a young woman’s emotions and conflicts as she deals tragedy and trauma. It’s beautiful, powerful and introspective, but threaded with unexpected humour. And it packs a wallop of content in just half an hour. The film stars Kim Sewon as Yumi and Jeon Chan Hyeong  as Yohan. It’s written, directed and co-produced by filmmaker and theorist Helen Lee. Helen is an alumna of the University of Toronto, York, NYU, and the CFC, was a critic and journalist and has gone on to teach film aesthetics, screenwriting and directing at Queen’s, Yonsei University, Korea National University of Arts, and OCAD. She has also directed many films of her own, including My Niagara, Subrosa and Prey.

Tenderness had its world premiere at TIFF on Wednesday, September 11th at 915 PM, as part of the Short Cuts program.

I spoke with Helen Lee in Toronto, via ZOOM, during TIFF.