Treeless Mountain

A mother abandons her two young daughters to her callous sister, giving them a piggybank and promising that, when it is full, she will return. Based on her own childhood experiences, So Yong Kim’s unobtrusive camera catches a wealth of detail in a wonderfully evocative rendering of a child’s yearning for a lost parent and, by implication, the chance of a lost childhood. The two young leads offer disconcertingly unaffected performances in the face of adult indifference, with a touching hope of redemption at the end. A little gem, not to be missed.