We caught up with the award-winning Director Christina Yoon of the OSCAR-qualified short film MOTHERLAND.

Christina Yoon’s Oscar® qualifying MOTHERLAND follows the emotional journey of Leah, an adoptee raised in America who travels to Korea to learn about her origins. However, when she gets there she finds herself presented with more questions than answers. This incredible film has qualified to be considered for a 2024 Academy® Award after winning Best Narrative Short at Provincetown International Film Festival (2023), Best Director at HollyShorts Film Festival and the Student Film Award at the Hamptons International Film Festival (2022).

Leah, a Korean adoptee raised in America, returns to Korea to search for her birth mother. Leah is met with secrecy from the adoption agency, as well as her own family, but remains relentless on her solo journey, driven by her longing to discover the truth of her origins.

Your film follows a young lady who heads on a painful trip to search for her birth mother, what was it about adoptees that inspired you to create this story?

Growing up as a Korean American in very diverse communities, I somehow had never met a Korean adoptee nor did I know much at all about the community. It wasn’t until I moved to Korea for two years in my mid-twenties when I met and befriended several Korean adoptees, and I began to research and learn more about the complicated and painful history of this community. I was deeply moved by their stories and felt connected to their experiences in their motherland. Ultimately I felt driven to shed light on their experience on screen.

Was the lead character based on anyone you met or know, or is she based on a number of characters you can across in research?

The lead character is not based on any one adoptee we spoke to specifically, but is a fictionalized character molded by the insights and experiences of many adoptees we spoke to. Every adoptee who graciously lended their insights had very different perspectives and personal experiences, especially in their decisions to search or not search for their birth families, but we quickly learned how nuanced and complicated all of their situations were. This informed our approach to making the film.

What did you shoot on, was it film or digital?

We shot digitally on an Alexa mini.

Where did you shoot the film and how long did you shoot for?

We shot for four total days in Seoul and Hwaseong, South Korea.

You bring out flawless performances from your lead characters, what is your directing process?

Thank you, our actors were incredible! It was important for me that the actors learned about the history of Korean adoptees and had insight on both the adoptees’ and birth families’ emotional experiences and perspectives. We had conversations at length about their characters and their backstories before we started shooting. On set, it was more about guiding them on emotional and story context, but they already came in with such strong acting experience and skill.

Congratulations on being OSCAR qualified which is certainly no easy feat, what does this mean to you?

It’s an honor to be OSCAR qualified, and we’re thrilled to be able to spread awareness on the Korean adoptee community with more audiences. If nominated, we would be the first Korean/Korean American film to have done so in the Live Action Short category.

What was it about Tiffany Chu who plays your lead character that led you to believe she was right for the role?

I was looking for an actress for this role who could portray a very specific performance—to express vulnerability and emotion under a strong layer of guardedness. Tiffany brought what I was looking for in putting on this “armor” of protection and distance while still being able to have raw emotions come through from right under the surface. Also, as Tiffany is a Taiwanese American, she had never been to Korea and was completely unfamiliar with the Korean language. Rather than having a Korean or Korean American actress pretend she didn’t understand what was being said, I much preferred our actress be immersed in the true experience of not belonging, not understanding, and being lost in this new world.

And finally, how did you get into directing?

I had always loved film as a young teenager and felt more passionate about visual storytelling and cinema than anything else. I went to NYU Tisch for college and began making films there and fell in love with the immersive, collaborative process of working with actors and various film departments to bring the imagination to the screen. I’ve been writing, directing, and working on productions ever since.