A man who researches Mongolian history lives a modest but happy life with his wife. But the day after the president declares martial law, he loses her in an unexpected accident—and the shock robs him of his voice. Clinging to the uncanny goal of speaking with his wife’s spirit, he sets out to recover his voice.

Lee Won-young’s fourth feature, The Glimmering, does not rush to interpret or pin down reality, in line with the director’s stated intention “to shape a contemporary sensibility through ambiguous images and off-screen sound.” Set against the specific political backdrop of martial law, the film layers restrained images and sound whose meanings resist easy fixation. Its form—pared back of explanations and marked by blurred causality—brings the character’s silence and the surrounding sonic environment to the fore; through a man trapped in a state of aphasia that prolongs mourning, the film amplifies the textures of loss and sorrow. Made on a minimal scale, it was completed with Lee and his wife, director Im Jeong-eun, taking on both filming and on-screen performances. The film won the Best Film Award in the Namdo Feature Competition at the 2nd Namdo Film Festival (Season 2, Gwangyang).