HAEMOO World Cinema

During the Asian financial crisis, a desperate fishing captain accepts a lump-sum cash advance to smuggle illegal immigrants back to the peninsula. Once at sea with his ragtag crew, heedless mistakes and a young sailor’s secret romance turn the voyage on its head. Sea fog shrouds the old trawler as male archetypes unleash savage behavior. Embellishing true events that rattled South Korea and neighboring China, this first feature from director Shim Sung-bo is co-written by celebrated Korean auteur Bong Joon-ho. HAEMOO is an allegorical retelling of a maritime catastrophe whirling out of control on a doomed exit plan, all in the name of self-preservation. South Korea’s official entry for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar®, HAEMOO is a portrait of a world adrift in darkness.