An adopted young French woman journeys back and forth over several years to connect with her Korean roots – but she’s not sure what she’s looking for.

Freddie has lived in France all her life, having been adopted from South Korea when she was a baby. Now 25, she unexpectedly finds herself in Seoul for the first time and, on impulse, decides to contact the agency that handled her adoption. The trip proves turbulent, pushing and pulling Frankie between extreme feelings and behaviours and, over subsequent visits, between satisfying and disappointing encounters with her birth parents. All the while, she struggles with a culture she knows almost nothing about, and with an uneasy acceptance of herself.

The second fiction feature from French-Cambodian filmmaker Davy Chou (Diamond Island, MIFF 2016; Golden Slumbers, MIFF 2011), which premiered in Un Certain Regard at Cannes, is a compelling character portrait of a fascinating woman in the midst of a difficult-to-resolve identity crisis. Refusing to take the easy road for his protagonist, Chou imbues each of the film’s separate acts with its own deftly arresting visual style – each mirroring the changes, for better or worse, that Freddie is experiencing – while newcomer Ji-Min Park shines in a fearless and magnetic performance.

“Not a tale of harmonious endings, but an exploration of a character trying to come to terms with her past.” – Deadline