Cannes-winning films to be released in Korea

Four Cannes-winning films, including “Amour” and “Beyond the Hills,” are opening in theaters in Korea, about six months after the movies won their awards.

Austrian filmmaker Michael Haneke’s French-language film “Amour,” which won the highest prize at the Cannes Film Festival in May, is a heart-breaking story about the dying weeks in the relationship of an old French couple. The film, which has also been selected as the Austrian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 85th Academy Awards, opens in theaters in Korea on Dec. 19.

Also opening in December is “Beyond the Hills,” a Romanian drama directed by the country’s celebrated filmmaker Cristian Mungiu. The film, which features the lives of two young women at an Orthodox convent in Romania, won the Best Screenplay and Best Actress awards at the Cannes Film Festival. 

The film was inspired by two non-fiction books, “Deadly Confession” and “Judges’ Book,” by Romanian writer Tatiana Niculescu Bran. In the books, she wrote about the case of a young girl who died after an exorcism ritual while growing up at a state orphanage.

Mungju won the Best Screenplay for the piece, while its main actresses Cosmina Stratan and Cristina Flutur shared the award for Best Actress. The film opens in local theaters on Dec. 6.

Danish director Thomas Vinterberg’s drama “The Hunt,” which won the Best Actor at the film fest, is also slated to open in December.

The movie, which takes place in a small Danish town, tells the story of a man who becomes a subject of mass hysteria during the Christmas season. It competed for the Palme d’Or, the highest award of the film fest, but did not win. Its main actor Mads Mikkelsen won Best Actor.

Also slated to open in theaters is Scottish comedy film “The Angels’ Share.” The film tells the story of Robbie, an unemployed young man from a broken home who gets sentenced to community service.

The plot develops as Robbie, after the birth of his son, finds a mentor who loves whisky. Robbie soon discovers he has a keen nose for the alcoholic beverage, as he can identify the different kinds of whiskies simply by smelling them.

The Korean release date for the film which brought the Jury Prize to English director Ken Loach hasn’t been announced yet.

By Claire Lee (dyc@heraldcorp.com)