Jordanians experience Korean culture through film

AMMAN – Sahar Tannerah’s admiration for Korean culture encouraged her to attend the 10th Korean Film Festival in Amman, which started on Sunday. 

The 20-year-old Jordanian likes several aspects of Korean culture displayed in their movies, which attracted her to the festival, she told The Jordan Times before the beginning of the first screening. 

She added that she particularly appreciates the respect that Koreans show for each other.

Tannerah was among many Jordanians who attended the first day of the annual Korean Film Festival, which is held as part of Korean Cultural Week at Al Hussein Cultural Centre in Amman and runs until Tuesday. 

Three movies — “As One”, “How to Steal A Dog” and “Welcome to Dongmakgol” — are on the festival’s schedule this year.

“As One”, the first movie screened on Sunday, dramatises an alliance between North and South Korean women’s table tennis teams, which prepared to play as a single unit in the World Table Tennis Championships held in 1991, according to the festival’s organisers.

“How to Steal a Dog”, which was screened on Monday, depicts a 10-year-old Korean girl’s attempt to steal a dog from an elderly rich lady and return it in exchange for a reward big enough to buy her struggling family a house.

The final film, “Welcome to Dongmakgol”, which will be screened on Tuesday at 6pm, centres on a US Navy pilot who crash lands his plane in a remote village in Korea that has remained ignorant of modern technology and history.

Korean Ambassador to Jordan Choi Hong-ghi said in a statement that since Korea is observing the 70th anniversary of the division of the Korean Peninsula, two of the films shown this year, “As One” and “Welcome to Dongmakgol”, reflect this theme.  

“This is an annual event and... part of our cultural activities in Jordan. Culture has a vital role to promot bilateral relations, and cultural exchange between the two countries has witnessed very good development these days,” he told The Jordan Times in an interview.  

The Korean diplomat expressed hope that through these cultural activities, people from different countries can enhance their understanding of one another and contribute to closing gaps between the two nations.

Reflecting on the popularity of Korean culture among the Jordanian community, he said: “I am very pleased to see this kind of phenomenon in Jordan... Through mutual understanding between the two cultures, the two nations can understand each other much better and can be friends very easily.”

Sarah Shoubaki, another member of the audience, said she is a big fan of Korean series and she wanted to see what Korean movies are like. 

“I am also interested in directing and producing and this festival can help me find more information about these fields,” the 20-year-old added. 

Ahed Tannerah, who studies Korean and German at university, said watching these movies increased her understanding of the Korean language. 

The Korean cultural week will also include a Korean speech contest at the University of Jordan on Tuesday and a performance by Korean folklore music ensemble Coreyah at Al Hussein Cultural Centre on Wednesday.   

Rooted in Korean traditional music, Coreyah combines different ethnic musical traditions such as African, Brazilian and Middle Eastern with modern styles such as jazz and rock, according to a statement from the organisers.