America Town (2017), the 11th film by indie auteur JEON Soo-il, will have its international premiere at the Sydney International Film Festival, which kicks off on June 6 and runs until the 17th. The indie drama is the only Korean film invited to this year’s SIFF.

The film tells a coming-of-age story set in Gunsan, a feeder town that provided nightlife and sex services to US army personnel, during the 1980s. A teenage photographer falls for a sex worker when she visits his father’s photo studio for an ID picture. KIM Dan-yul (VANISHING TIME: A BOY WHO RETURNED, 2016) stars as the young boy while newcomer LIM Chae-young plays the object of his affection.

JEON’s film debuted at the Busan International Film Festival last October, where it screened in the ‘Korean Cinema Today - Panorama’ section. Both director JEON and his producer JEON Dong-nyuk will attend the festival in Sydney.

A Busan native, JEON has made several piercing works that explore the marginalized in Korean society. Among his most famous films are the festival hits The Bird Who Stops in the Air (2002), which earned the NETPAC Award in Busan and the Grand Prize from the Fribourg International Film Festival, and With a Girl of Black Soil (2007), which picked up the Grand Prize at the Cine Junior Film Festival and the Best Director Award at the Fair International Film Festival.