Planet of Snail 2011

The exquisitely gentle Planet of Snail, top prize winner at the Amsterdam Documentary Festival, finds the inspirational in the everyday. This patient, immersive and appropriately tactile film follows the daily routine of a deaf-blind man, Cho Young-chan, who lives in a small Korean town with his tiny wife, Soon-ho. Despite his dependence on his ‘shadow friend’, he lives a life of quiet determination and considerable accomplishment, studying Hebrew, writing poetry, making sculptures, and scripting a play to be performed by a bunch of his blind friends at the local church. Lesser tasks prove more demanding: diminutive Soon-ho and blind Young-chan have to work together in order to change a fluorescent bulb in their bedroom. Their relationship is so smooth and symbiotic that friends and colleagues are concerned that Young-chan might be losing his independence, and promote a forced separation to prove his ability to survive on his own. Director Yi Seung-jun follows their triumphs and disappointments with a wonderful intimacy that matches that of the central couple.