Archaeology of Love

• Wanmin Lee
• 168 min
• South Korea, France
• 2022
• Fiction

Archaeologist fighting for love and independence in this delicate, minimalistic portrait of a woman who gets stuck in the remains of an unsound relationship.

When Young-sil is 32, she falls in love with Inseek. This takes eight hours, then they are a couple, with a promise of everlasting love, no matter what. But Inseek soon turns out to be more than spontaneously charming and eager to love. He becomes increasingly dominant and jealously controls not only who Young-sil meets, but also what she says, thinks, and does – and she goes along with it. Over eight years we follow Young-sil’s way out of the destructive relationship and how she discovers that excavations may be needed even inside a person, in order to understand and to be able to move on. Ok Jayeon is on-screen for the larger part of the film’s 168 minutes and plays Young-sil in a way that is strongly moving, as if she were a close friend. The question is: Will she be able to love again?

- Freddy Olsson

• Kärlek
• Drama
• Uppbrott