Knock

In his first feature, The Berefts (2024), co-directed with Huh Jang, director Jung Bum presented a desolate portrait of home and family. With Knock, his first solo feature, he turns to a reality just as bleak—perhaps even darker. A documentary crew filming a youth care facility turns its camera on the teachers and children there. Yet there are truths the camera cannot capture. When In-a, a former resident of the facility who now works there as a volunteer, enters the picture, the situation grows even more confused, and hidden secrets begin to surface one by one. What makes the film most compelling is the persistence and pull of its storytelling. Knock begins like a dry, restrained drama, but crime, thriller, and mystery elements gradually seep into the cracks of the narrative. As we watch, we suddenly find ourselves inside a film markedly different from the one we first entered. The cast’s solid performances give the film much of its force.(KIM Hyung-seok)