A burden carried barefoot

Korean-directed documentary ‘My Barefoot Friend’ offers captivating human drama


They will soon be gone from the vibrant streets of Calcutta.

The rickshaw operators, who haul customers and cargo across the city using their bare feet, work about 15 hours a day in merciless traffic, overwhelming heat and even torrential rain. But their profession could be extinct in just two or three years, as the Calcutta government has been enforcing a ban on rickshaws on its streets since 2006.

Following the releases this year of doctor-filmmaker Song Yoon-hee’s “The White Jungle” and Lee Kang-hyun’s “The Color of Pain,” the K-film scene sees the arrival of another engrossing documentary, this time set far from Seoul.

“My Barefoot Friend,” an International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam-nominated feature-length documentary by director Lee Seong-gyou, features the life of a 50-something rickshaw operator named Shallim, whom Lee first met in 1999 while shooting his 2000 film “Unseen War: Report on Bihar” in India.

Director Yi Seung-jun, who won the top prize at this year’s IDFA for his documentary “Planet of Snail” was one of Lee’s crew members at the time.

“We were volunteering at a missionary in Calcutta while preparing for filming,” Lee told The Korea Herald during a phone interview on Thursday.

“And there was this patient we wanted to talk to, but he spoke a regional dialect. We asked Shallim, whom we met on the streets, to translate what the patient said into Hindi. That was how we became friends.”

Lee, who has made many non-fiction films on Nepali and Indian migrant workers, has visited India frequently in the past 10 years. Lee filmed Shallim whenever he visited Calcutta from 2003 to 2009.

“I ended up having 20,000 minutes of footage of him,” Lee told The Korea Herald. “And I had to get rid of 19,915 minutes, as the movie is only 85 minutes.”

Throughout the movie, Lee follows Shallim’s personal dreams and history as he pulls his rickshaw through Calcutta’s colorful and chaotic streets. Viewers find out that the diligent old man moved to Calcutta from his impoverished rural hometown of Bihar aged 15, and worked with a rickshaw for almost 35 years. He sends his hard-earned money to his family in his hometown every month, and lives with his six of his fellow rickshaw operators in a small, one-room flat.

Shallim’s dream is to purchase a motorized rickshaw and make more money to support his family better. He suffers from sense of guilt whenever he thinks of his eldest son, who used to earn good grades in school but chose to work for a factory in Mumbai for money instead.

Lee’s friendship with Shallim is evident throughout the movie, giving him rare access to the innermost side of the moving character. Celebrated writer Lee Oe-soo slowly narrates the film in his low, fatherly voice, which humanizes the character even more.

The film reaches its climax as Shallim’s wife becomes severely depressed with a mental illness, and he is faced with the harsh reality of having to spend all of his savings for her treatment. In one of the scenes, Shallim completely breaks down in front of his hard-earned cash, while his clearly ill wife is asleep right next to him.

“Turn the camera off,” Shallim tells Lee in the scene, while sobbing. “Leave me alone. I’m in utter despair.”

Lee, however, does not stop, and captures arguably one of the most painful moments in Shallim’s life. The particular scene created a buzz at film festivals in Europe, Lee said, as some thought Lee’s intrusion into Shallim’s personal despair did not respect his dignity.

“I could’ve totally cut the scenes out,” Lee explained. “I think the scene can be disturbing, yes. But I wanted to be open about every single process of this movie. It could’ve been perfectly edited in the way which everyone would think is appropriate. I didn’t want to do that.”

Lee, who has been financially supporting Shallim throughout the years, said Shallim and his fellow operators will most likely lose their job in the next three or four years.

“Honestly speaking, Shallim has no plans what he’ll do after,” Lee, who still talks to Shallim once every month, said. “Our film crew is thinking of forming an NGO so we can help Calcutta’s rickshaw pullers find new jobs.”

Shallim still works in Calcutta with his rickshaw, while his wife is being treated at a mental hospital, according to Lee.

“My Barefoot Friend” opens in theaters on Dec. 15.

By Claire Lee (dyc@heraldcorp.com)