FEMSPECTIVES 2020 - Overseas

FEMSPECTIVES 2020

Sung-a Yoon's Overseas is as depressing and upsetting as it is hopeful and profound. It is a deeply enlightening and captivating story that follows a group of Phillipino women committed for maid work overseas to enrich their families for a better life. 

The tragedy here is not only the fact that these women are burdened with a responsibility far more significant than most the western world will know, but also the fact that this isn't a get rich quick scheme, ultimately a lifelong dedication. Such sentiments are superbly captured here by director Sung-a Yoon, of whom exercises a documentarian aesthetic that captures that very traumatic realism that these women face. It is engulfing, in-your-face realism that won't let the audience flinch with pause — and why should it? 

Sung-a Yoon often blurs the line between fact or fiction, with a superb effective tone. So much so, scenes of traumatising terror and harrowing behaviour are revealed to be simulated here as an act, but the fire and scope of said events — even if the film breathes with comedic sensibility — never loses its weight and peril of the commitment these women have to push themselves through above all else. 

That very emotional embroilment is a theme that Sung-a Yoon never leaves to flounder. It is reinforced left, right and centre for its justified and resonating impact. Not only is the documentarian camera work from cinematographer Thomas Schira exquisite, but the performances overall are tremendous. Utterly visceral in their creation, the feature's performances are transparent and honest; they are effective and organic to the point in which they can be almost hard to stomach. Specifically, the realisation of these brave women coming to terms with the fact that their young children will slowly but surely forget them in the years they are away.

The tragedy throughout is profound and astonishing to bear witness, but what makes Overseas the more impacting and captivating is that aforementioned hope and steadfast dedication these mothers put forward. The price said women are willing to pay — not only to provide for their families in the meantime but the commitment of losing precious time in the process — is not only a sincere reminder of the privilege the western world holds but a reminder that no matter who or where you are in life, time is inestimable