Korean Wins Golden Bear for Best Short Film

Published on 2015/02/17 | Source

Na Young-kil shows off his Golden Bear for best short film at the Berlin International Film Festival on Saturday. /AP-Newsis

Na Young-kil won the Golden Bear for the best short film at the 65th Berlin International Film Festival on Saturday. He won for "Hosanna", his graduation project at the Korea National University of Arts.

This is the second time a Korean has won the honor after brothers Park Chan-wook and Park Chan-kyong in 2011 for "Night Fishing".

"Hosanna" is about a boy who has a special power to raise the dead, and probes the unending greed of human beings.

Born in Jinhae, South Gyeongnam Province as the son of a pastor, Na himself studied theology but eventually quit.

The 25-minute film was also selected for the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival.

The short is sexually explicit and violent and has divided audiences during its four screenings in Berlin. Some walked out.

"I thought pushing the limits of extreme despair could paradoxically show the efforts of finding hope on the other end of the spectrum", Park said defending the violence. "I wanted to raise questions about life, death, and salvation through the boy".

Meanwhile, Iranian director Jafar Panahi won the Golden Bear for the best feature film with "Taxi".