Pieta

Born 1960, Bonghwa, North Gyeongsang. South Corea) South Korean director. Studied fine arts in Paris, in 1990-92. In 1993, he won the award for best screenplay from the Educational Institute of Screenwriting with A Painter and A Criminal Condemned to Death. After returning to South Korea, Kim began his career as a screenwriter and won the first prize in a scenario contest held by Korean Film Council, in 1995. In the following year, after two more screenplay awards Kim made his debut as a director with a low budget movie titled Crocodile. The film received sensational reviews from movie critics in South Korea. Then he went on to direct Wild Animals, Birdcage Inn, The Isle (selected in competition at Venice IFF 2000) and the highly experimental Real Fiction, shot in just 200 minutes. Real Fiction was entered into the 23rd Moscow IFF. In 2011, Address Unknown was selected by the Pusan FF's Pusan Promotion Plan (PPP) for development. In 2003, the Karlovy Vary festival's FIPRESCI Jury president Susanna Harutyunyan (the artistic director of Golden Apricot FF) handed Kim Ki-duk the FIPRESCI Prize for his film The Coast Guard. At the Berlin IFF, he was awarded for Samaritan Girl (2004), and at the Venice IFF he won for 3-Iron (2004). In 2011, his documentary film Arirang received an award for best film in the Un Certain Regard category from the Cannes IFF. In 2004, he won the Grand Prize for Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter…and Spring at the Pacific Meridian IFF in Russia as well as other prizes at Las Palmas, and in 2003, at Locarno and San Sebastián festivals. In 2012, his film Pieta received the Golden Lion Award at the Venice IFF, the first Korean film to receive a Best film honor at one of the top three international film festivals - Venice, Berlin and Cannes. Kim Ki-duk reveals national Korean problems at the same time considering them as part of the modern world. His films are modern myths connected with one another in the sense of repeating themes, plots, and character types. Kim heroes are people from the lower strata of society which no one has previously spoken about. In extreme situations of frantic struggle and grotesque the director bares innocence in the souls of his heroes. Kim Ki-duk does not accept the rules and laws. He obeys unless composition and his sense of style.