Alisa Gevorgyan
Public Radio of Armenia
He didn’t go to school, because only 50% of children in South Korea attended school, when he was a child. He used to repair cars until the age of 30, and watched the first film when he was 32. The film “Silence” changed his life and interrupted his silence in cinematography.
The best known South Korean film director of all times Kim Ki-duk is in Yerevan at the invitation of the Golden Apricot 11th International Film Festival. Retrospective screening of his films will take place within the framework of the festival. During the Sunday opening ceremony Kim Ki-duk was granted the Parajanov Thaler Award.
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, Kim made his debut as a director with a low budget movie titled Crocodile (1996).
In 2004, he received Best Director awards at two different film festivals, for two different films. At the Berlin International Film Festival, he was awarded for Samaritan Girl (2004), and at the Venice Film Festival he won for 3-Iron (also 2004). In 2011, his documentary film Arirang received an award for best film in the Un Certain Regard category from the Cannes Film Festival.
In 2012, his film Pieta received the Golden Lion award at the Venice Film Festival, the first Korean film to receive a “best film” honor at one of the top three international film festivals – Venice, Berlin and Cannes.
The director is visiting Armenia for the first time. He searched the web to learn about Armenia before the visit, and spent three hours this morning walking in the streets of Yerevan.
Kim Ki-duk recognizes no rules and laws in art. the only thing he trusts is his feeling of fiction and style. He experiences new emotions in Armenia. He’s surprised and grateful that his films are known in a country he has just discovered.
The South Korean film director promised today to present his new film in Yerevan and performed a Koran folk song to conclude the meeting with Armenian art lovers.
