Director Jung Ju-ri Shares Heartfelt Meaning Behind ‘Dora’ at Cannes Film Festival

“I felt that the audience watched ‘Dora’ until the very end and were really thinking about Nami and Dora,” said Director Jung Ju-ri.

During a round interview with Korean media on the 19th (local time), Director Jung described the first screening at Cannes as an “encouraging and supportive experience.”

Her new film, ‘Dora,’ met global audiences after being invited to the Directors’ Fortnight section of the 79th Cannes Film Festival.

The story follows Dora (played by Kim Do-yeon), a high school senior with an unknown skin disease, who moves to the countryside with her family for treatment and begins interacting with new neighbors, including Nami (played by Ando Sakura).

Director Jung explained, “I made this movie hoping that Dora, who starts in a vulnerable and sick state, would eventually stand up as a fully recovered being.” She added that the love surrounding Dora is the power that makes this recovery possible.

Dora’s journey of healing in her own unique way is portrayed multi-dimensionally, appearing both pathologically vulnerable and sensual.

“I wanted the audience to watch the film while keeping a distance, rather than empathizing or relating to Dora from the start,” Director Jung recalled, noting that she was “obsessively careful” to achieve this.

She added, “I hoped the audience would feel as if they were gradually approaching Dora, and that in the end, each person would be left with their own thoughts about Dora and Nami.”

The role of Nami, a Japanese woman married to a Korean man living in the countryside, was played by Ando Sakura, a three-time Japan Academy Film Prize Best Actress winner.

Ando Sakura explained her decision to join the cast, saying, “There is a part where Nami floats in the sea, and I felt that scene connected to my actual self. I was captivated by that one scene.”

Reportedly, Ando Sakura initially declined the role due to the requirement to act in Korean and the inclusion of sexual scenes.

However, acting in clumsy Korean actually brought out raw emotions that were not bound by language or words.

“Working on ‘Dora’ was an opportunity to realize that acting is something that transcends language,” Ando Sakura reflected, calling it “a very great experience as an actress.”

She added, “I learned a lot from the differences in the culture and atmosphere of the filming set. I want to participate in more films from Korea and other countries in the future.”

Working with an actor who speaks a different language was also a challenging task for Director Jung.

“Having a Japanese actor come to Korea to make a movie together was far beyond my expectations,” Director Jung recalled. “It was very difficult, but I think everyone achieved a sense of accomplishment in communication through that process.”

She shared, “The process of discovering that we were ultimately thinking the same thing, even without a common language, continued throughout the two and a half months of filming. It was an experience I had never had before.”

The ending credits of ‘Dora’ include the name of actress Kim Sae-ron, who passed away last year. Director Jung previously worked with the late Kim Sae-ron in her feature debut ‘Han Gong-ju’ (2014).

“Actress Kim Sae-ron was such a huge and important actress to me,” she said. “It is so hard to have lost her, and it hurts so much that our film industry and society eventually lost her.”

She added, “In ‘Dora,’ I wanted to tell a story about how the younger generation survives and eventually recovers, because hope still lies with the younger generation.”

Director Jung has now introduced three of her feature films to global audiences at the Cannes Film Festival, including ‘Dora.’

Her debut film ‘Han Gong-ju’ was invited to the ‘Un Certain Regard’ section in 2014, and ‘Next Sohee’ was invited as the closing film of the Critics’ Week in 2022.