Director Sørensen confesses to adoption, "I wanted to say it wasn't my birth mother's fault."

Taekyung Tanya Inwol Sørensen, born in Korea in 1982, boarded a plane to Denmark two months after birth.

The baby named 'Hwang In-wol' was adopted by a couple who ran a gas station and was given the name 'Tanya' and the last name 'Sørensen'.

He was the only Asian in the village, which was located on a flat land with no mountains next to the beach. Growing up surrounded by white Danes, he struggled with how to express his identity.

I wanted to ask my Danish parents who raised me and my birth mother in Korea about my roots, but I couldn't get an answer. My parents passed away early, and my birth mother said that after several letters back and forth, she wished we could no longer contact her.

He picked up a camera and filmed his journey to find his roots. In this way, the documentary film 'Home Chic: At the End of the Sea' (hereinafter 'Home Chic'), which tells the story of Sørensen from his adoption to his childhood, was completed. The work was invited to the ‘Documentary Showcase’ section of the 31st Busan International Film Festival held this year.

“There were a lot of things I wanted to say to my birth mother in Korea, but I lost contact without being able to say everything. What I wanted to say most was that it wasn’t your problem.”

Director Sørensen, whom I met in Busan on the 9th, said that this film is a love letter to mothers. His autobiographical documentary looked at a broader dimension along with personal narrative.

‘Home Chic’ shows director Sørensen’s childhood without any additions or omissions. His family was not the harmonious and harmonious family you would normally imagine for an overseas adoptive family. His father, Hans John, had violent tendencies, and the couple who adopted director Sørensen eventually divorced. Director Sørensen, who was raised by his father John after his mother's death, lived with his stepmother, stepsister, and stepbrother. However, Director Sørensen's family was engulfed in twists and turns, as his stepmother separated from his father at one point.

Director Sørensen brought this family history to life by interviewing family members. He, who had not known his roots due to the silence of his Danish parents and Korean biological mother, met his uncles and aunts, maternal uncles, maternal aunts, aunts, stepbrothers, and stepsisters and asked about them.

This became a process of reviving lost memories and healing the wounds of families who had been silent about the past.

Director Sørensen said, "When I asked one person a difficult question, every member of the family wanted to talk about it. They talked as if they had kept it for a long time. In some ways, I think the movie was a healing process for the family."

He may have felt burdened about revealing personal stories such as his adoption, his violent father, and his parents' divorce. Director Sørensen acknowledged this and confessed, “Making a movie itself is difficult, but making it with my own story is even more difficult.” He lightened the burden by limiting the narrative to childhood.

In addition, they attempted to break away from the typical narrative in which adoptees search for their biological father or mother. Instead, he focused on and investigated the process by which he was placed in the situation of adoption.

As a result, Director Sørensen learned that his adoption documents had been falsified. He, who was recorded as an abandoned child, had a biological mother. Director Sørensen reported his case to the 2nd Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which was investigating human rights violations during the overseas adoption process.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission acknowledged that the human rights of 56 people, including Director Sørensen, had been violated by the state during the adoption process. It was proven that there were cases of illegal adoption, such as falsely recording a lost child as an orphan in the name of economic gain and process efficiency.

However, Director Sørensen did not receive any compensation from the Korean and Danish governments. Even after the investigation was announced, people were still unable to access their adoption information.

Director Sørensen said, “There has been no change or improvement since the second Truth and Reconciliation Commission,” and added, “The third Truth and Reconciliation Commission is in progress, and I hope that overseas adoption investigations will be diverse and comprehensive.”

He also emphasized, “The right to access adoption documents must be resolved from a human rights perspective,” and “a process for restoring citizenship must also be established. A compensation process in any form is necessary.”

He also pointed out the need to change social awareness. He believes that the reason the birth mother, with whom he had been exchanging letters after learning that the document had been fabricated, eventually stopped contacting him was society's attitude toward unwed mothers. The number of Korean children adopted overseas since the Korean War in the 1950s is estimated at 200,000, the largest number in the world.

Director Sørensen plans to continue making documentaries about ‘diaspora’. With long names such as 'Taekyung' (a name he created), 'Tanya' (a Danish name), 'Inwol' (the name on the adoption document), and 'Sørensen' (a Danish surname), which symbolize various identities, he said he was interested in people who settled and created their identity in a place other than their home country.

“The topic I am interested in is diaspora. Diaspora is becoming a common topic. There are many Korean diasporas called overseas Koreans all over the world. It is still in its early stages, but I would like to talk about the Korean community in South America.”