Korean film ‘Concrete Utopia’ to be screened at Habitat International Film Festival on Monday
New Delhi: Korean Cultural Centre India will be showcasing the Korean film, ‘Concrete Utopia’, directed by Um Tae-hwa at the prestigious Habitat International Film Festival. The Korean disaster thriller film will be screened at the India Habitat Center (The Stein Auditorium) in New Delhi on March 11 (Monday) at 09:00 pm. The 05th edition of Habitat International Film Festival, which begins on March 8 and will conclude on March 17, will feature a total of 47 films from 29 countries.
In 2023, ‘Concrete Utopia’ was recognized for its artistic value after it won the prize for the Best Film at the 32nd Buil Film Awards. The film also won the top accolades at the 59th Grand Bell Awards, and the Best Director Award at the 44th Blue Dragon Film Awards in Korea. It is a disaster thriller film that begins with survivors gathering in an apartment in Seoul after a great earthquake.
The movie is an adaptation of the second part of the Korean webtoon ‘Jolly Outcast’, which is ‘The Cheerful Neighbor’. The film director Um Tae-hwa selected the scene showing the moon, which has grown to a bizarre size and is floating in the sky as the most impressive scene from the original webtoon in an official interview. The reason he cited was that it was interesting to see people becoming increasingly strange while dealing with a disaster. In the same interview, Kim Soong-neung, the author of the original work, cited the confrontation scene in front of the apartment entrance at the beginning as the most impressive scene in the movie.
Hwang Il Yong, Director of Korean Cultural Centre India said, “Interest in Korean culture and Korean content is very high in India, and we often receive calls from various cultural and arts organizations in India citing their interest in this field. In this international film festival also, in which major countries such as Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Australia, Japan, Spain, Italy, Sweden, and Chile are participating through their local embassies and cultural centres, the organizer repeatedly requested Korea’s participation. We plan to continue promoting Korean cultural content on local culture and arts on content platforms and create opportunities for Korean content industries to enter the Indian market.”
