Becoming Kim

Director Susanne KIM | Producer Sarah KANG, Holm TADDIKEN | Korea, Germany | Film 90min, TV 55min | 4K | Color

Project Description

Budget

Logline

Facing the threat of divorce after 13 years of marriage, a German woman Susanne, and her Korean husband Jeong Rae are in a bind. Susanna decides that if their relationship can't be fixed, at least it can be filmed. What does it take to fill the void left by romantic love?

Synopsis

Most culture clash comedies go like this: first chaos, then marriage. Then the film ends. But why do most stories always stop when things get interesting? Susanne, a German woman, and Jeong Rae Kim, a Korean man fell in love on first sight. But happiness is short-lived, and their relationship seems to be drifting apart by their differences. Jeong Rae, who had been living as a foreigner in Germany, suddenly decides to return to Korea and open a chicken restaurant. Facing the crisis of family disintegration, Susanne decides to capture their relationship on camera. Will love conquer all?

Director's Statement

Becoming Kim is a humorous documentary about Susanne (me) and my family - how we overcome language, cultural barriers, and gender roles. I enter Jeong Rae's world in an attempt to ask, listen, and to understand where he really comes from. But also questioning myself as a wife, mother, and wanna-be-feminist. That's why I step in front of the camera myself and perform my dreams, doubts and inner role models. The journey aims to actively explore the collision of our upbringings. What can we do to understand, love, and be with each other as we are?

	Susanne KIM is based in Leipzig, Germany. Her previous films Baked Together and Imagine Swimming have screened at international festivals such as Dok Leipzig and Vision du Réel, and her latest film Cabinets Of Wonder is a hybrid of documentary and VR that premiered at Intl. Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam.
Director  Susanne KIM
	Sarah Kang’s latest film My Missing Aunt world premiered at Jeonju Intl. Film Festival and preparing for theatrical release in 2025, Queer My Friends world premiered at Hot Docs and was theatrically released in Korea, and Ayena (Mirror) won the Best Documentary Award at Oslo Intl. Film Festival and premiered at DOK.fest München, Vilnius Intl. Film Festival and so on. She is an alum of IDFAcademy, Eurodoc, and Dok Incubator.		Holm Taddiken founded his own company Neufilm GmbH in late 2004. In the years that followed, he produced a number of documentaries and feature films. Holm has a strong presence in the German and European market, having distributed his previous film Once Again to Netflix and collaborated with various European broadcasters. He produced Susanne's previous films Cabinets of Wonder and Imagine Swimming.
Producer  Sarah KANG		Producer Holm TADDIKEN