Monday 4 October 2010

A Barefoot Dream: A Glow from The Neighbor

Timor Leste, an ex Indonesia's province which was granted liberty in 2002, has been mostly exposed for its domestic political conflicts. Disagreement between pro-Indonesia and pro-independent triggers gun fight, riot, and chaos. Without eliminating the context, director Kim Tae-Gyun presents a glow of Timor Leste's young footballers in a based on true event film, "A Barefoot Dream".

The Film's Poster
The story follows Korean ex youth footballer, Kim Won-Kang, with his crocodile hunting plan in North Sumatra, Indonesia which turned out to be a disaster. For a hope of earning money, he flew to Timor Leste to find such opportunitiy. His business did not run well in the country, he was under debt to some Japanese and Korean fellows, and locals perceived him trickster. Nevertheless, he did a very good job training young barefoot footballers to be professional footballers who won Under-12 Rivelino Cup in Japan two years in a row (2004 and 2005). 

An involvement of Timor Leste's President Xanana Gusmão shows how the government supports the movie as the country's promotion media. It does not hide the upheavals of the country, poverty, chaos, and so on, yet it exposes a hope of unity through the youth football team achievements.

I never watched Korean film nor television series before, thus at first I doubted the movie would be a good flick. Somehow, the premise attracted me among the other Hollywood and Bollywood films played in a multiplex. As I had assumed, the movie was not selling well that day as there was only three persons watching in the theater. However, the movie gave me a very good first impression of Korean feature films. Was impressed by the actor Hie-sun Park's ability to converse in some different languages of Portuguese, Indonesian, and local language Tetum, though he still keeps his Korean accent. Moreover, the story is also simple with some dramatic and thank God, no dry jokes enrichment.

Although the movie is not a first-tier-festival style, it conveys lots of moral values. Therefore, I encourage people, especially Indonesian, to watch the film to gain an alternative story of our neighbor. So, 잘했어! (well done!)

From Nothing

To Something
pictures sources:
http://asianmediawiki.com/A_Barefoot_Dream
http://bicarafilm.com/baca/2010/09/30/a-barefoot-dream-sekali-lagi-kisah-nyata-tentang-kekuatan-mimpi.html