Temora will have a taste of foreign film culture as one of only five regional locations on the free touring program as part of the 17th Korean Film Festival in Australia (KOFFIA). The festival showcased 10 Korean films that were filled with raw emotion and cinematic energy in Sydney last week along with question-and-answer sessions with some of the acclaimed actors and filmmakers. Temora’s program will feature two of the films at the Town Hall Theatre on 17 September and is being presented in partnership with Temora Shire Council, giving local audiences the chance to enjoy contemporary Korean cinema right on our doorstep. In the program prepared for Temora features a romance and a darker mystery as a grieving husband searches for answers surrounding his wife’s death. This film, Maze, stars KO Kyung-pyo as a grieving husband hunting for someone to blame after his wife’s death, led by a private detective toward a truth he has spent years avoiding and screens at 10.30am on Thursday 17 September. The evening program getting underway at 7pm features Once We Were Us, Starring KOO Kyo-hwan and MUN Ka-young, it moves between Seoul in 2008 and a reunion more than a decade later, following two people whose friendship becomes an extraordinary love before adulthood pulls them apart. KOFFIA programmer Inji Jung said that after a string of Australian premieres in Sydney, we're taking the best of contemporary Korean cinema on the road, free and direct to regional audiences. “If you think you know Korean cinema, throw expectations to the wind. If you've never seen it, get ready for star-crossed lovers, neo-noir thrillers and stories that go straight to the heart of the human experience,” she said. “Audiences expecting familiar K-drama tropes will be handed something far grander, you won't find this program anywhere else." The festival is only touring one regional town in each state and for NSW and Temora has been selected as the NSW location for this year.
