Forget Me Not

What makes a mother give away her baby This is the big question in Sun Hee Engelstofts poignant heartbreaker of a film about three Korean women who have become pregnant outside of marriage and are now hiding from the outside world until they give birth They live in a shelter for unwed mothers on a South Korean island where beautiful landscapes are in sharp contrast to the fierce dilemma that women go through should they keep their children or give them up for adoption Engelstoft has been given unique access to this particular shelter run by the strongwilled Mrs Im who fights for the girls independence but is up against a social structure and family tradition that leaves women in an impossible situation Engelstofts sensitive portrait brings us close to a forbidden world and through her own experience as a Korean adoptee she gives a deeply personal and extraordinary insight into a culture in which women cant choose their own fate