Synopsis

Heo Na-gyeong who goes to Road Schola, an alternative education school for traveling, learns about the Vietnamese war. However, she cannot bear the cruelty of civilian massacre during the war. She wonders why we have to see and listen images and testimonials of such cruel scenes of carnage. The first step is a short documentary film about her asking questions and finding answers on her own.

Director

• 

  Heo Na-gyeong
  

  The First Step (2016)

Review

The First Step is about Najam, the director and narrator of this film, visiting Vietnam to study the Vietnamese War. Najam learns of the war’s brutality from the museum and the words of a civilian victim. This process itself distresses her. Witnessing photographs of the war victims’ misery, or facing a victim who became blind because of gunpowder are frightening things for Najam to put up with. Najam is the type of person who turns her head around when brutal scenes appear in a movie or a novel. It is because she feels the pain of others like her own. At last, Najam confesses in tears how strenuous it is to study the war. However, she decides to muster up courage after meeting a woman who also shed tears over the war, yet still testifies about it. Najam realizes nothing changes though evasion, and that confronting the uncomfortable is what trigger things to change. After her return to Korea, Najam starts to look around the things near her. The Miryang transmission tower protest, the Sewol ferry disaster, the 'comfort women' of the Japanese military. She notices that there are many of tragic, brute facts surrounding her as well. Najam heads to the square with a candle in her hand. In the end, it turns out The First Step is a film striving to get a step closer to peace. [Han Dong-hyeok]

Credits

• Director, Producer, Cinematographer, Editor  Heo Na-gyeong
• Music  Heo Na-gyeong, Sawol

Distribution / World Sales

• Contribution & World Sales  Heo Na-gyeong
• E-mail  sandra1858@naver.com