[HanCinema's Film Review] "The Truth Shall Not Sink with Sewol"

Bombastic English title notwithstanding, "The Truth Shall Not Sink with Sewol" is actually a pretty standard technical documentary. In the wake of the Sewol ferry tragedy, a man arrives on the scene with a diving bell. He explains in pretty clear detail how the object works. Basically, it lets divers stay underwater longer- obviously a helpful thing to have around, given that poor weather conditions frequently frustrated the divers in their attempts to find any possible survivors. And yet, it takes quite some time for the diving bell to be used. Why?

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"The Truth Shall Not Sink with Sewol" isn't a retrospective documentary. Most of it was shot in the days immediately after the tragedy, and what starts out as a simple logistical explanation regarding one possible source of hope eventually becomes an indictment of the rescue's command structure. In spite of the huge international attention, nobody actually running the recovery effort appears to have any idea what they're supposed to be doing.

The political context of the documentary is pretty impossible to ignore. To this day a huge camp of protestors remain outside Gwanghwamun, demanding answers from the government about what really happened. As directors Ahn Hae-ryong and Lee Sang-ho demonstrate here, everyone already has a pretty good idea what the problems really were. What's lacking from the official end is any kind of apology, regardless of how well documented the incompetence regarding the Sewol incident is.

The guerrilla nature of most of the footage prevents too much in the way of interesting visuals, although the recurring shot off the slowly submerging vessel is an apt one. Note how, after the greater submerging, the Sewol ferry is always surrounded by boats which never actually seem to be doing anything. It's imagery that's emblematic of the fact that it took an outrageously long time for rescue crews to achieve even the most basic progress.

While obviously the documentary will have the most emotional impact on Koreans, I couldn't help but see more worrying international trends in "The Truth Shall Not Sink with Sewol". Everybody knows that governments screw up on a regular basis, yet apologies are often a long time in coming. In the United States right now we have a pretty serious problem with unarmed black people being murdered by the police. Forget their going to jail or even making an apology- the cops involved in such altercation frequently receive material and emotional support because they're not allowed to be criticized.

...All right, yes, that political analogy kind of came out of nowhere, but that's really the kind of documentary "The Truth Shall Not Sink with Sewol" is. This is an unabashadly political project primarily because there isn't any other way to interpret this information than as a demand for reform and resignations. Trying to go for objectivity after all the information that's uncovered would just be, well, emotionally heartless and dense. People are dead. The mechanism that could have possibly prevented this, or at least resolved the situation faster, wasn't used. As the title indicates, the truth hasn't sunk. It's just that no one wants to admit it.

Review by William Schwartz

"The Truth Shall Not Sink with Sewol" is directed by Ahn Hae-ryong and Lee Sang-ho.