More The King of Pigs (MIFF 2012) than Finding Nemo, Padak continues the confronting impulses of recent Korean animation.

Writer/director Lee Dae-hee spent five years crafting this exquisite and harrowing "fable for adults", centred on innocent mackerel Padak, caught in the ocean and ‘imprisoned' in a seaside restaurant tank with a handful of farm-bred fish. The only way she can escape seems to be at the sharp point of a kitchen knife.

Bleakly beautiful and told in silvery animation, the award-winning Padak is a mature, bittersweet allegory of nihilism and resistance. Can Padak return to the ocean? Can she save her friends? Will they even try to save themselves? Existential in nature, it is a film that will make you reconsider your sushi, and yourself.

"Padak is beautiful and cruel, sad and lively." – Indiewire

Contains scenes that may disturb.

Screens with Una Furtiva Lagrima.

D/P/S Lee Dae Hee WS Indiestory Inc L Korean w/English subtitles TD DCP/2012