Shin-myung competes in waacking, a form of voguing. Having cut ties with her family and rural hometown, Shin-myung seeks various ways to fund her gender reassignment surgery. But one day, she is informed that her estranged father, a master of Nongak folk music, has died. He stipulated that Shin-myung can receive her inheritance money if she returns to the village and performs a traditional drum dance, as part of his memorial rituals. Unwilling to yield to her intolerant father’s posthumous demands, the unapologetic Shin-myung is forced to reluctantly reconnect with her past while staying true to herself.

Driven by an empowering vision of trans identity, this assured debut feature from Byun Sung-bin contemplates the possibilities – and limits – of forgiveness.

Queer East is a cross-disciplinary festival that showcases boundary-pushing queer cinema, moving image work and live arts from, and about, East and Southeast Asia and its diaspora communities.