Sydney Film Festival Closing Film – Broker
This award-winning South Korean film, Broker, came direct from Cannes to close this year’s Sydney Film Festival where it garnered a rapturous reaction from audiences.
The story delves on two men who run an illegal business of occasionally stealing newborn babies that are left in a church’s baby box and selling them on the adoption black market.
It’s business as usual until a young woman returns to reclaim her baby after abandoning him the previous night. Desiring the best for her child she then decides to tag along on a road trip with these men to interview the baby’s prospective parents.
The promise has been made to find the child the best possible parents, but will the exchange be made? Is this an act of benevolence or fiendishness? Unbeknownst to these peculiarly likeable scoundrels they are being trailed by two detectives who endeavour to catch them in the illegal act of selling the child.
In what could potentially have been very dark and morbid viewing owing to the controversial and affective nature of the human trafficking storyline, surprisingly transpired a film that is pleasant to watch chiefly due to the humour utilised in the storytelling process.
Notably the vivacious young child who appears in many scenes throughout the film provides much laughter as does one of the men who are recklessly determined to profiteer enormously from the sale of the baby.
Masterfully produced this strangely heart-warming story should be thought-provoking and quite a revelation for Australian audiences. The ideology of leaving unwanted newborns in baby boxes may appear as an insensitive and inhumane cultural practice to westernised audiences.
★★★ ½
