Night cap with 489 années (489 years)

Interview with Hayoun Kwon, director of 489 années (489 years)

 Why did you decide to recreate the DMZ zone using animation as opposed to filming on location?
Filming authorization is very difficult to obtain when you’re an independent artist. But more importantly, I’m not particularly interested in showing a sample of the DMZ. We often hear politicians talk about it but I do think that deep down they just don’t know what they’re talking about. What was important for me was to capture the subjective viewpoint of someone who knows the DMZ well. As it happens, these are soldiers who’ve spent a long time there. L’histoire de ce soldat me permet d’accéder à ce lieu indirectement et de le visiter à travers ses yeux. The story of this soldier allows me to gain access to this location and visit it through his eyes. A lived experience can be reinvented, especially when we come across a forbidden zone when nature and the risk of death cohabit. So decided to use animation to explore the fantasmatic character of the location.

 Do you often use animated documentary as a genre?
Yes, I find it’s a very inventive genre.

 Is this a real account, and is this the voice of its author or is it a text read by an actor?
This is a real recorded that I’ve cut and edited together.

 Have you thought of creating more films based on different sequences of this account?
No.

 489 années tackles the issue of anxiety when there is a real risk of death. What interested you in this particular situation? The presence of death or anxiety itself?
What I’m interested in is the paradoxical dimension of this deeply dangerous place, as well as the nature that inhabits it and its beauty. The mine and the flower symbolize this quite well.

 489 années questions the impact of the risk of war and conflict in an unfavorable political situation on soldiers in charge of protecting the country. Have you thought of pursuing your exploration by interviewing the average inhabitant or on the contrary, a politician who would be a ‘risk bearer’?
No, not yet. But that might come later.

 What films have inspired you this year?
Not this year but last year, I loved Dead Slow Ahead, directed by Mauro Herce.

 Have you been to the Clermont-Ferrand Festival before? If so, can you tell us a story about your time there? If not, what are your expectations?
Clermont-Ferrand is the first French city that I’ve visited and is it here that I learnt French.  15 years ago, when I was still a student, Korean films were screened and at the time, I watched them with a lot of admiration and later, I returned to present my own films. Coming to Clermont-Ferrand feels a bit like an emotional step back in time.

489 années is being shown in Lab Competition L5.