A Brand New Life

"Striking a perfect balance between the vague, distant memories of childhood and the accuracy of a rigorous script, Ounie Lecomte makes her directorial debut with A Brand New Life, a remarkable film that has the pace and the humility of a precocious masterpiece. Lecomte's warm approach to directing envelops this bare, ascetic story of an abandoned youth with a sincerity that is as genuine as it is devastatingly moving. Inspired by the time Lecomte spent in a Seoul orphanage run by Catholic nuns, before being adopted by a French family, the film records a formative time in the life of a little girl with insight and austere realism. A brand new pair of shoes shines on the feet of nine-year-old Jinhee (Kim Sae-ron). Thrilled with the...