Becoming Kim

Followed by a talk with Susanne Kim and Brigid O'Shea.

Thirteen years after engraving “Kimchi & Potato” into their wedding rings, filmmaker Susanne Kim turns the camera on her own marriage. When her husband Jeong Rae returns to South Korea to pursue a long-held dream, Susanne remains in Leipzig with their daughter, forcing the family to navigate life across continents. Blending intimate observations with carefully staged self-portraits, Becoming Kim is a candid, humorous and deeply reflective exploration of love, cultural identity and the invisible expectations that shape contemporary relationships. As personal doubts intersect with inherited ideas of gender, family and belonging, Kim asks whether love alone is enough to bridge the distances between two lives.

Susanne Kim is a filmmaker from Leipzig who combines documentary observations with staged interventions in her work; in her latest film, BECOMING KIM, she explores family, marriage, and expectations, including those placed on her as a woman and a mother.

Brigid O'Shea is a founder of the Documentary Association of Europe, co-head of programme for CIRCLE Training Initiative and a documentary film consultant helping filmmakers around the world reach their goals and potential.