Reach for the SKY

Two Danish-Korean adoptees return for the first time to the country they of their birth. Confronted with the spirit of their Motherland and the personal stories of the fellow adoptees they meet in the city of Seoul, Karoline and Thomas are hurled into an emotionally disorienting journey that forces both of them to question and face their own destiny and identity.

On 9 November 1989, the Berlin Wall fell. Andreas, Marc, and Sonya, as young people at the time, had to face the sudden unification head-on. After leaving Germany, they are currently living in Korea as a pianist, a film production manager, and a researcher at Samsung Electronics respectively. When a mood of reconciliation between South and North Korea is developing in 2018, they are hopeful that they may face a second reunification. They come to think that North and South Korea of today bears subtle resemblance to East and West Germany in 1989 beyond time and space···.

Sandra, an orangutan who spent two decades in Buenos Aires Zoo, becomes the world's first non-human person recognized by an Argentine court. What seems a historic victory soon sparks a deeper question: where and how should she live as an intelligent being, as law and science seek to understand her mind?

For 10 years, Nawruz has lived in BLISS, a former government housing project that has now become a shelter for local migrants, city workers, and university students. Originally from the southern Philippines, he has decided to stay in Manila not only for work opportunities but also for the comfort and freedom of urban living. But staying in Manila isn’t easy— and it isn’t cheap either. He accepts freelance design and animation work, sells beauty products, joins a community lending scheme, and thinks of renting a whole flat in BLISS and lease its rooms to others to earn and save money. One day, his mother calls and asks him to come home. She is worried about his financial troubles and offers to help.Reluctantly, he agrees and uses this opportunity to connect again with his family, especially with his mother whose values have always been old-fashioned.