Broker

A young mother leaves her baby at a church, unaware that black marketeers intend to sell it on to the highest bidder, in Hirokazu Koreeda’s Cannes-winning drama.

Koreeda Hirokazu’s Cannes-winning feature, his first to be shot in Korea, focuses on the semi-illicit world of adoption markets. So-young leaves her recently born child at a church where Dong-soo works. Once an orphan, he now takes some of the abandoned infants and, with the help of black marketeer Sang-hyun, sells them at a high price to parents desperate for a child of their own. But when So-young regrets her decision and returns to the church, her discovery of what is to happen to her child and the money involved leads her to join in the enterprise. Little do the three know that their movements are being monitored by two cops.

Like Koreeda’s 2018 Palme d’Or winner Shoplifters, Broker steers clear of pat moral judgements in favour of a deeper understanding of his characters’ motivations, which prove far more complex than they initially seem. Cannes Best Actor winner Song Kang-ho is riveting as Sang-hyun, while fellow Parasite alumnus, cinematographer Hong Kyung-pyo, brings a crispness to the images.