TITE: Peafowl

CLUB 18+135 min

Having cut ties with her family and moved to bustling Seoul, Myung has risen to the top of the city’s dance scene through flawless waacking. Winning her next competition will validate her commitment to her art, her estrangement from her parents, and pay for her gender affirming healthcare — only she doesn’t win.

Still stinging from the loss, Myung unexpectedly learns of her father’s death and is pressured into returning home to perform a traditional drum dance in his memory. Doing so would ful - fil the conditions of his final will and earn Myung her in - heritance… An inheritance that would fully cover her surgery fund. Torn between the clamouring dance floors of Seoul and the peaceful countryside she left behind, Myung’s thorny past be - gins clashing with her budding present.

Syncopating the patient drumbeat of a hometown drama and the heart-thumping passion of a disco, this visually arresting dra - ma punctuated by sensational choreography tears down imagined barriers between tradition and modernity through its touching portrayal of grief, intergenerational bonds, and making peace with the past on your own terms.

The star of the show in every sense of the word is Haejun, one of South Korea’s leading street dancers, making their feature debut as Myung. With a dramatic performance as perfectly ex - ecuted as their choreography, Haejun infuses each of Myung’s scenes with nuance and vulnerability as she’s forced to shift fluidly between black sheep, grieving daughter, powerhouse dancer, and maybe even a mentor to the queer kids of rural South Korea who will come after her.

Presented in partnership with our friends at Queer Spectrum Film Festival.

This screening features fully subtitled spoken dialogue.

PRE-FEATURE SHORT:

MEHROON (2024, India, 10’)

Dir/Writ: Abu Sohel Khondekar

In the wake of her father's death, Mehroon is confronted with a will that holds her in a suffocating grip. Determined to break free from the oppressive expectations of society and family, she embarks on a journey of self-discovery and liberation.