Shot in stark black and white, SURPLUS is the haunting tale of a poor Korean farmer forced by economic necessity to choose which one of his four daughters to give up.

Told through the eyes of the eldest daughter MEA, the story begins with a game of hide-n-seek interrupted when JUN, the farmer's favorite, gets hurt. Meanwhile, the farmer's wife goes into labor. As one child suffers, another is born.

The birth of the farmer's long-awaited son is expected to change the fortunes of the family. But as the days slowly go by and food becomes scarce, the sacrifice of one of his children becomes imperative. But which one? The innocent hide-n-seek game becomes a painful allegory of the farmer's tortured search for an answer.

This dark fairytale-like film is uncompromising in its depiction of the abandonment of a child as the ultimate sacrifice for survival.

16mm, Black and White, 2000
Running Time: 22 minutes
In English and Korean