MUMBAI: Korean film Paranmanjang (Night Fishing) won the Golden Bear Award for best short film at the 61st Berlin International Film Festival. This news has been evoking a lot of interest since brothers Park Chan-wook and Chan-kyong shot the entire 30-minute film on an iPhone.
One the nine Korean films that featured in the festival, Night Fishing was funded by roughly around $136k by South Korea‘s exclusive iPhone carrier, wireless company KT.
The plot of the experimental film, that took 10 days to record using the iPhone 4 and a crew of 80 people, centers around a fisherman who catches a female shaman in the middle of the night and transcends his current and previous lives. The film is a fantasy that uses recording techniques and effects that leave viewers in total disbelief that it was shot on the iPhone. The work is also the first movie to be recorded with a smartphone and win an award at an international film festival.
25 short films were competing for the award. Another Korean director, Yang Hyo-joo received second place honors in the same competition with her Silver Bear Award winning short film The Unbroken.
The jury explained its decision to award Night Fishing the Golden Bear, "The film we chose is nothing but a small miracle. Throughout the multi-layered original story of a simple man who is forced to confront his life and death through his shape-shifting, we experienced transformation, judgment and deep forgiveness."
