Laurent Boileau

This remarkable animated documentary traces the unconventional upbringing of the filmmaker Jung Henin, one of thousands of Korean children adopted by Western families after the end of the Korean War. It is the story of a boy stranded between two cultures. Animated vignettes – some humorous and some poetic – track Jung from the day he first meet his new blond siblings, through elementary school, and into his teenage years, when his emerging sense of identity begins to create fissures at home and ignite the latent biases of his adoptive parents. The filmmaker tells his story using his own animation intercut with snippets of super-8 family footage and archival film. The result is an animated memoir like no other: clear-eyed and unflinching, humorous, and above all, inspiring in the capacity of the human heart.

The annual dinner commemorating the death of Cornelius, revives Samuel's memories. He was 20 years old when he discovered is attraction to Cornelius. Tormented by regret and misunderstood by all, he never revealed his homosexuality to Cornelius's family, whom he had invited that evening. After their departure, Samuel retires to his room, desperate, and seeks for refuge in his night life : he becomes a Queen of the Night, in tribute to his lost love.