Experiencing Interruptions?

Bi-Mok

After her father's disappearance at sea, a Korean-Australian girl, Soo Ji, struggles to find peace with her ailing Grandmother in a bleak steelwork town that holds few answers to her fragmented past.

  • Baro Lee
    Director
    Hiruaerak
  • Baro Lee
    Writer
  • Olivia Jeavons
    Producer
    Homestead
  • Milly Olrog
    Producer
    Carmen, New Gold Mountain, The Invisible Man, I Am Woman
  • Ansel Wakamatsu
    Producer
  • Helen Kim
    Key Cast
    "Older Soo Ji"
    Wolf Like Me, No Ordinary Love, Doctor Doctor, Ugly Carter
  • Anna Woo
    Key Cast
    "Grandmother"
  • Jayne Ho
    Key Cast
    "Young Soo Ji"
  • Diamond Tat
    Cinematography
    The Big Dog, Everything In Between,
  • Tara Sriharan
    Production Design
  • Kai Chen
    Composer
  • Stephanie Todd
    1st Assistant Director
  • Michael Restifo
    Art Director
  • Will Suen
    Gaffer
  • Sebastian Reategui
    Post Production Supervisor
  • Claire Haru Choi
    Script Supervisor
  • Soobine Park
    Costume Designer
  • Project Type:
    Experimental, Short
  • Runtime:
    19 minutes 20 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    January 12, 2023
  • Production Budget:
    25,000 AUD
  • Country of Origin:
    Australia
  • Country of Filming:
    Australia
  • Language:
    Korean
  • Shooting Format:
    Arri Raw 4.5K
  • Aspect Ratio:
    1.33:1
  • Film Color:
    Black & White
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Baro Lee

BARO LEE is an emerging Korean Australian writer and director
whose stories focus on the sacrifice, grief and tenacity influenced
by his immigrant family and community.

Baro graduated from the University of Technology Sydney in Media Arts and Production and the Film and Television Institute of India. Baro wrote and directed his personal documentary ‘Hiruaerak’, selected as a finalist at the Antenna Documentary Film Festival.

He is also currently a writer in the ‘Stories From Another Australia’ initiative run by Co-Curious and supported by The Ian Potter Foundation, Screenrights Cultural Fund and Screen NSW. Baro has spent the past five years working in several film production such as Marvel Studios to Australian features ‘Elvis’, 'Bosch & Rockit', 'Hearts and Bones', 'Penguin Bloom’, and ‘Carmen'.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

I started thinking about this story when I travelled to Korea with my family for a funeral, in 2018. Despite being together, despite needing each other, we never expressed our feelings to each other. Ultimately, grief acted as a barrier between us.

In Bi-Mok, Soo Ji’s sense of loss doesn’t fade away. Her inability to speak about her father's disappearance stunts her ability to move on. She is unable to connect with her only other living relative in the country; her Grandmother. I think a story about the heaviness of silence in immigrant families is a story that speaks significantly to the everyday lives of immigrant families whose experiences have been informed by migration and dislocation.

‘Bi-Mok’ hopes to capture how emotional traumas left unspoken can impact how we navigate our relationship with one another. I witnessed my parents and grandparents hold in their sorrows and hardships, and I’m sure many others like me have experienced the same thing. We made this film in the hope that it will give viewers from CALD backgrounds the courage to find a way to reconnect and heal with their loved ones.