Film Hanaan (2011): Korea and Uzbekistan seen from a margin

In: Journal of Eurasian studies, Band 10, Heft 1, S. 98-105

Abstract

Hanaan, an Uzbek and Korean co-production, is the debut film of a young Central Asian Korean director, Ruslan Pak, who wrote the script and directed its production. Pak is a fourth-generation descendant of Korean diaspora forcibly relocated by Stalin in 1937 to populate the Soviet Central Asian republics. In Hanaan, Pak portrays how the post-Soviet generation of Korean diaspora is coping with life in post-Soviet Uzbekistan that has built ethnic-based national identity since Independence. As the film shows, it is not easy for the protagonist Stas and his Korean friends to find their places in their imposed homeland. It is therefore not so surprising that they face many conflicts and challenges that reveal not only social problems in Uzbekistan, including drug issues and ethnic minority problems, but also difficulties in self-identification. Searching for an identity "at a margin" and "as a marginalized" is one of the central themes of this film. In this case which follows Stas's (as well as the director's) desperate journey to Hanaan or "the Land of Promise," I will explore the present situation of the Korean diaspora in Uzbekistan and engage with the messages that the director attempts to convey through this film.