PIETA World Cinema

Kim Ki-Duk (ARIRANG) returns to AFI FEST with his Golden Lion winner, PIETA, the story of a man working as a loan shark who threatens and cripples those who can’t make their payments. One day, a woman appears on his doorstep claiming to be the mother who abandoned him as a baby. At first he rejects her, but then he gradually accepts her into his life, eventually quitting his job in an attempt to spend his days recapturing the time lost with her. When she is kidnapped, he must track down the culprit, revisiting all those he had hurt in the past, only to discover his mother is harboring a dark secret of her own. A return to form for Kim who explores the themes of guilt and revenge, creating such fascinating characters that he elevates the Korean revenge sub-genre to a whole new level and in doing so reaffirms his seat as a master of Korean cinema.