FILM OF THE MONTH
Extreme life makeover
What happens when a Korean-American family leaves California to set up home on a farm in rural Arkansas
4/5
MINARI
Steven Yeun, Yeri Han, Yuh-Jung Youn
Lee Isaac Chung’s semi-autobiographical immigrant drama was the toast of last year’s Sundance Film Festival, winning top prizes from the jury and audience alike, and it’s not hard to see why it struck that balance: it’s quiet and delicately crafted, but soulfully plays to the crowd, too, exposing a heart as big as the rural Arkansas sky. It’s under said sky that the Korean-American Yi family set out to start a new life, having left the expat community of California to go it alone as farmers. In many ways, Chung’s film takes the form of a classic American Dream epic, but with an expanded cultural view, as the family faces their own internal conflicts atop the challenges of assimilating into heartland society. It makes for a stirring, relatable, often slyly funny journey, galvanized by the wonderful Steven Yeun (The Walking Dead) as the hopeful patriarch trying to hold everything together. 19 March