Poetry

Poetry follows Mija, a 66-year-old woman living with her teenage grandson in a small South Korean town, who enrolls in a poetry class as she begins showing signs of Alzheimer's disease. Her quest for beauty and poetic inspiration is profoundly complicated when she learns her grandson was involved in the brutal assault of a young schoolgirl who subsequently took her own life. The film is a deeply moving meditation on guilt, responsibility, beauty, and the search for meaning in the face of moral and cognitive deterioration.

• Directed by South Korean auteur Lee Chang-dong, released in 2010.
• Actress Yun Jung-hee came out of retirement for this role.
• Won Best Screenplay at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival.
• Yun Jung-hee had not acted in 16 years before filming.
• The film explores Alzheimer's and poetry writing simultaneously.

• "A poet must see. You must really look at things."
• "What is poetry? Where does it come from?"
• "Even when something is painful, you must look at it carefully."
• "I want to write just one real poem before I die."
• "Beauty can be found even in the most terrible things."