Waltz for the Shore

This film follows a young woman (Haerim) who visits her grandmother’s house on the southern coast, expecting to spend a relaxing day at the beach. Instead, she is confronted with a landscape of reclaimed land and unfamiliar surroundings. The once serene waves and small harbor are now surrounded by private property and bamboo forests. Her inability to approach the sea becomes a metaphor for her deeper loss of belonging, extending beyond the physical boundaries of the land. The film also explores her awkward reunions with her grandmother and aunt, moments of eating canned peaches, feeling dizzy on a bus, and encountering an overturned umbrella—fragments of her (non)ordinary journey. Through these moments, the film delves into the void of an identity that seems to belong nowhere and invites the audience to reflect on the concepts of place and belonging.