Treeless Mountain

Korean director Kim So Yong has made a sombre yet touching film about the vulnerability and loneliness of children in a world of not-very-benign neglect. Two little sisters of six and four are one day told by their mother that she must leave them for a while – something about needing to track down their ­father. They are to be sent to their aunt, and given a piggy-bank, and promised that every time they do something good they will get a coin to go in it, and when the piggy-bank is full, the mother will return. Finally the kids get sent to their kindly grandmother, who has holes in her shoes that make the children feel sorry for her – and that piggy-bank, long since full, is to be the centre of a quietly moving moment at which we realise how the girls have accepted their fate. Not an easy watch, but worth sticking with.