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| yna@yna.co.kr 2026-05-20 10:04:55
SEOUL, May 19 (Yonhap) -- "I felt that the audience really stayed with the film until the end and kept thinking about Nami and Dora," director July Jung said.
In a roundtable interview with Korean reporters Tuesday in local time in Cannes, Jung described the film's first screening there as "an experience that gave me courage and encouragement."
Her latest film, "Dora," was invited to the Directors' Fortnight section of the 79th Cannes Film Festival, where it was introduced to audiences from around the world.
The film follows Dora, a high school senior suffering from an unexplained skin disease, who moves with her family to a countryside home for recovery and becomes involved with new neighbors, including Nami.
Jung said she made the film hoping Dora, who begins the story in a vulnerable and painful state, would ultimately stand again as someone fully healed.
"The love surrounding Dora is the force that makes that recovery possible," she said.
Dora's unique way of coping with her illness is portrayed in a layered manner, appearing at times pathologically fragile and at other times sensual.
Jung said she wanted audiences to keep some emotional distance from Dora at first rather than immediately empathizing with her.
"I was obsessively careful about that myself," she said, adding that she hoped viewers would gradually feel themselves moving closer to Dora and, by the end, be left with their own impressions of Dora and Nami.
Japanese actress Sakura Ando, who has won the Japan Academy Film Prize for best actress three times, played Nami, a Japanese woman living in rural Korea after marrying a Korean man.
Ando said she decided to join the film after being captivated by a scene in which Nami floats in the sea.
"I felt that scene was somehow connected to the real me," she said.
She initially hesitated to accept the role because she had to perform in Korean and appear in sexual scenes.
However, she said acting in imperfect Korean allowed her to express raw emotions unconstrained by language or words.
"Working on 'Dora' made me realize that acting transcends language," Ando said. "It was a very valuable experience for me as an actress."
She added that she learned a great deal from the differences in filming culture and atmosphere and expressed hopes to continue working not only in Korea but also in films from other countries.
Jung said working with actors speaking different languages was also a challenging experience for her.
"The process of a Japanese actress coming to Korea and making a film together was far beyond anything I had imagined," she said. "It was extremely difficult, but through that process, I think all of us achieved something in communication."
She added that throughout the two-and-a-half months of filming, they continuously discovered that they were ultimately thinking the same things even without fully understanding one another's language.
The ending credits of "Dora" include the name of late actress Kim Sae-ron, who died last year. Jung had previously worked with Kim on her feature debut "A Girl at My Door" in 2014.
"Kim Sae-ron was such an important actress to me," Jung said. "Losing her has been incredibly painful, and it hurts deeply that our film industry and society ultimately lost her."
She added that through "Dora," she wanted to tell a story about younger generations somehow surviving and eventually recovering.
"Hope still lies with the younger generation," she said.
All three of Jung's feature films, including "Dora," have been invited to Cannes.
Her debut feature "A Girl at My Door" was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival, while "Next Sohee" was invited as the closing film of Critics' Week in 2022.
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