Korean Film 'My Name' Earns Italian Audience Award for Jeju 4.3 Story

A Korean film about one of the darkest chapters in the nation's modern history traveled to northern Italy last week and did something that doesn't happen often at international festivals: it made a standing ovation feel inevitable. "My Name" (내 이름은), directed by veteran filmmaker Chung Ji-young, received an Audience Award citation at the 28th Far East Film Festival in Udine, Italy, completing a month that also included a Berlin International Film Festival premiere and a growing domestic attendance figure that continues to climb.

The film screened on April 28 at Teatro Nuovo Giovanni da Udine, one of the festival's primary venues. The standing ovation that followed the screening led directly to the audience vote that awarded the film a share of the festival's Mulberry Audience Award. Back home in South Korea, the cumulative viewer count had already reached 191,975 by May 3 — a number that reflects both the film's critical reception and the particular emotional resonance it carries for Korean audiences who know the history at its center.

What the Film Is About — and Why It Matters Beyond Korea

"My Name" is set against the backdrop of the Jeju April 3rd Incident — known in Korean as 제주 4.3 — a period of anti-communist suppression and subsequent massacre that occurred on Jeju Island between 1948 and 1954, resulting in an estimated 14,000 to 30,000 deaths. The event remained officially suppressed in South Korean public discourse for decades and was only formally acknowledged by the government in 2003. For many Korean families, especially those with roots in Jeju, it is a wound that never fully healed.

Director Chung Ji-young — born in 1946 and one of South Korea's most respected socially conscious filmmakers — has spent his career excavating exactly these kinds of historical silences. His earlier works include White Badge (1992), Unbowed (2012), and National Security (2012), each of which confronted uncomfortable institutional truths about the Korean state. "My Name" continues in that tradition, connecting one person's emotional journey to the collective trauma of a generation.

Lead actress Yeom Hye-ran anchors the film with a performance that festival reviewers and domestic critics have both singled out for its depth. The Far East Film Festival added its voice to the chorus: "A film that connects individual pain to the collective trauma of Jeju 4.3," the festival's statement read, noting that both Yeom's work and that of co-star Shin Woo-bin had earned special praise.

The Global Response: From Berlin to Udine

"My Name" arrived at FEFF 28 already carrying the prestige of its Berlin International Film Festival invitation — specifically, the Forum section, which is traditionally programmed for films that challenge expectations and prompt serious engagement. That programming decision confirmed the film as a work with international critical credibility before Italian audiences had voted a single ballot.

Sabrina Baracetti, the executive director of FEFF 28, framed the film's cross-cultural impact directly: "It is a balanced work based on real events, and it has the power to resonate with audiences around the world." That assessment proved accurate. The Udine audience — largely European, with a strong contingent of dedicated Asian cinema fans — gave the film one of the festival's audience citation awards despite competing in a field that included Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese, and Korean films across multiple genres.

For context, the 28th edition's top Audience Award (Mulberry) went to Japanese film Fujiko, directed by Taichi Kimura. "My Name" shared third place among audience favorites alongside Chinese film Blades of the Guardians, Vietnamese entry Tunnels: Sun in the Dark, and fellow Korean film The King's Warden. Placing in the top tier of any international audience vote, regardless of ranking, speaks to the film's ability to communicate across significant cultural distance.

At Home: Relay Screenings and a Nation Paying Attention

Back in South Korea, the domestic release has carried its own particular cultural weight. A grassroots "430 Relay Screening" campaign — named for the 4.3 tragedy — has brought together students, overseas Koreans, veterans, and ordinary citizens for public viewings across the country. The campaign began with an attendance by President Lee Jae-myeong and his wife, which gave it early visibility, but its persistence reflects genuine public interest rather than political choreography.

Special screenings are planned for May 8 to 10 in Jeju specifically — for surviving victims of the April 3rd Incident and their families. The screenings will be offered free of charge. That gesture — bringing the film back to the place where the events happened, for the people most directly affected — is perhaps the most meaningful expression of what "My Name" is ultimately about: not just historical documentation, but acknowledgment, and the particular kind of healing that only acknowledgment makes possible.

"My Name" is currently in wide theatrical release across South Korea. For international audiences, its festival circuit trajectory suggests further screenings are likely. For the people of Jeju, the standing ovation in an Italian theater is not just a cultural milestone. It is one more instance of the world finally paying attention to a story that deserved it for a very long time.

What International Recognition Means for Korean Historical Cinema

The Mulberry Audience Award citation at FEFF 28 joins a growing body of international recognition for Korean films that engage directly with the nation's modern historical traumas. In recent years, Korean cinema's global profile has expanded significantly — from commercial genre successes to increasingly confident works of historical testimony. "My Name" occupies an important position within that shift: it is not a commercial-first production designed for international export, but a deeply local story that traveled abroad and found resonance precisely because of its specificity.

Yeom Hye-ran, who plays the central character navigating the aftermath of the April 3rd Incident, brings to the role a precision that critics and festival audiences have consistently highlighted. Her performance here operates at a different scale than the supporting roles that earned her broad recognition — this is full lead work, carrying the historical and emotional weight of a story that Jeju families have waited decades to see told with this kind of care. That the international community is now bearing witness is, for everyone connected to the film, something far more significant than a festival citation.

As Korean cinema continues to find new audiences worldwide, films like "My Name" serve an additional purpose: they ensure that viewers who know Korea primarily through its contemporary cultural exports also encounter the country's more difficult history. Standing ovations in Udine accomplish more than one thing at once.