BFI FUTURE FILM FESTIVAL 2025
Sobae Kim
<A Natural Saddest>
FESTIVAL SCREENING
Thursday Shorts 20th Feb, 2025
FEB, 18, 2025
Bomb and Cherry’s unorthodox business venture of selling pearls is put at risk when the pair fall deeper in love, leading to pain and conflict.
Hi Sobae, how does it feel to being at the BFI Future Film Festival with your short film <A Natural Saddest>?
Very exciting to show to audiences far away from Korea and also meet other filmmaker friends. I would like to say thank you so much to the BFI FFF staffs.
How important are festivals like BFI Future Film Festival, in creating a platform for short films and filmmakers?
It's nice to be able to screen the movie to an audience that I couldn't reach on my own, so the movie, director, and audience know each other's existence and exist in memory.
Short films are a vital medium in the film industry, yet there are few opportunities for the public, outside of festivals, to see them. What more can be done to make short films more visible and accessible to the wider cinema audiences?
It would be nice to reach on more diverse people since online platforms are active, so that we can watch short film in enjoyable and relaxed. But I think the most important thing is our interest. Interest in short films.
Can you tell me a little bit about how <A Natural Saddest> came about. What was the inspiration behind your debut short?
I wanted to make a movie that was fun and sensual, that you could enjoy, but at the same time, I wanted to express a pure and fragile heart at the same time.
What was the experience like working with Kim Jong eun and Kim Leehan?
It was a really fun and happy experience, talking a lot with them, revising the characters, developing scenarios, trying to put their emotions and stories into the characters. I really enjoyed the process of sharing our own stories, creating characters, and finally creating a picture on set.
I was lucky to be able to capture the vibe of these attractive actor and actress.
How important is this creative collaboration between writer/director and your team?
How to communicate well is the important thing. Because you have to synchronise each other's brains to make a movie.
Also, it's important to respect each other, but at the same time, balance each part(staff)’s unique talents and the flow of the movie.
What was the message you wanted to convey with <A Natural Saddest>, and do you think you achieved it?
I wanted to express the moment of the coexistence of ambivalent concepts. For example, love and hate, excitement and sadness, innocence and erotic love, because I think that's the most honest human nature.
Honestly, I don't know if it was conveyed well or not, but if the audience enjoyed it, I think that's enough.
Once you start shooting do you like to stick to your script as written or do you allow yourself/cast some flexibility with the material?
I can say for sure that I try to be as flexible as possible.
I think the most appealing thing about film and the camera medium is the immediacy and I think it is most important to capture the moment when the air and weather, the clouds of the day, the actor's heart, and everything else comes together. At one moment.
But it's not easy when we are short on time. If I have enough time, I try to improvise and try different things depending on the scene.
What were the biggest challenges you faced making this film?
The biggest challenge was the pressure on myself. Will I be able to make it? Will I disappoint the crew and actor/actress who trusted me? was the hardest pressure.
What would you say has been the most valuable lesson you discovered about yourself as a filmmaker during the making of <A Natural Saddest>?
The most valuable lesson was you have to do it, you have to make what you have in your head a reality. because If you don't do it, you'll never know.
Have you always had a passion for filmmaking?
Not really. There were moments when I was so tired and exhausted, and I didn't know if I like it or not.
But there was always a moment of sparkle, a moment of thrill, and it was more intense than anything else I've ever done, and it made me fall in love with filmmaking again.
Growing up who where the filmmakers that inspired you?
When I was young, the Marvel series, Tim Burton, Michel Gondry and when I grow up little, Wang Kar wai, PTA.
You’re now studying filmmaking in German, what has that been like for you?
I feel like I've met a lot of new friends who are doing film or art in a new environment, and it's made me think about ideas in ways I hadn't before. Fresh feeling.
What are the biggest changes to your filmmaking approach been since your debut short?
It gave me a sense of the capabilities and possibilities I had, and also it encouraged me to try and create more.
"I want to express the contradictory moments of life, even if it is not human, such as animals and nature is also interesting."
Is there any advice you wish you had been given when you started your filmmaking journey?
Nothing. Because not knowing makes me braver.
Moving forward, what themes and subjects are you looking to explore with future films?
Still human.
I want to express the contradictory moments of life, even if it is not human, such as animals and nature is also interesting.
I want to express strong but at the same time fragile, beautiful but ugly, that kind of honest expression of nature being.
And finally, what message would you want your audiences to take away from <A Natural Saddest>?
Joy and excitement!, a little sadness and a lot of loveliness.