Humanity is in a constant search for significance – to find love, a sense of belonging and truth. The 2010 Athens International Film and Video Festival highlighted this search with the competition show Three Films About Finding Someone Special. “Sing Me to Sleep,” “The Search” and “In the Matter of Cha Jung Hee” are three films that follow individuals in their search for something, whatever it may be.

The scene: a middle-aged man riding his mother’s rickety bike through the beautiful Polish countryside while jamming to a song by The Smiths. The film is “Sing Me to Sleep,” directed by Magnus Arnesen. Colorful and upbeat, the beginning of this film has the audience captivated as the man stoops to pluck a handful of daisies for an unknown woman.

Quickly, the scene, lighting and mood all change. Now the audience sits at the bedside of an old and ornery woman. The man Arnesen introduced at the start of the film is Robert, and the flowers he picked are given to this severely ill old woman – his mother.

His mother has only one wish for Robert – that he may find happiness… and a girlfriend. And so begins Robert’s quest for love, which the audience follows each step of the way. Traveling through more bright fields of beautiful flowers, the sounds of the countryside are added to the film. However, the chirping birds and mooing cows can at times be a bit overbearing and distracting. Another detrimental element in the film is the darkness of the night scenes, which creates viewing difficulty at times.

Viewers who dislike movies with subtitles or large amounts of in-depth dialogue may want to steer away from “Sing Me to Sleep.” However, wonderful use of parallelism and the desperate nature of the story redeem any minor flaws, keeping the audience hooked from the start of Robert’s journey to find “someone special” until he again rides his mother’s bike through the countryside as The Smiths croon.

The second film in the series of finding someone special differs drastically from the first, beginning with a seemingly lonely and disconnected man tipping back a beer while gazing at the stars. The short film “The Search,” directed by Mark Buchanan, is a new kind of search, the quest to find alien life in our galaxy.

The main character, David, is employed by SETI (the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) and sets up a large satellite in his backyard in hopes of discovering artificial intelligence. In the end, what he finds and whom he meets could be more significant than anything he ever imagined.

With a filming style that is easy on the eyes and a modern score that blends pop and techno music, this film successfully caters to an audience of college students enthralled with the world of science fiction and sympathetic to feelings of loneliness. “For a moment, just a moment, we were not alone.”

The final film in the series on finding someone special is a heart-wrenching autobiographical documentary that follows an adopted Korean woman as she searches for the truth about her identity and childhood memories. “In the Matter of Cha Jung Hee,” directed by Deann Borshay, features typical documentary style filming mixed with home videos and historical footage.

The woman was adopted from an orphanage in Korea into an American family when she was very young and was given the American name Deann, but the identity of a Korean girl named Cha Jung Hee. Right away, the film introduces the mysterious nature of this woman’s adoption as she explains that her true identity was switched before adoption. Now, as an adult, the fake Jung Hee returns to South Korea to search for the real Jung Hee in hopes of finding herself (and her true memories) along the way.

As the audience accompanies Deann on her journey to find truth, they become a part of interviews with social workers and adoption agencies and join in sorting through endless documents. For some, interest may quickly be lost in an occasionally tedious plot and dialogue that throws in translators and subtitles. The reoccurring use of home videos and historical footage of war may also be distracting from the main plot line.

However, the film is beautifully successful in helping the audience learn more about Korean culture and the truth of the adoption industry that was birthed after the Korean War. As pieces of the puzzle begin to come together for both Deann and the audience, most viewers will be glued to their seats in hopes of finding truth along with her.

Together, these three movies perfectly display the nature of every human being. Whether it be someone to love like Robert in “Sing Me to Sleep,” a place to belong like David in “The Search” or for truth and personal identity like Deann in “In the Matter of Cha Jung Hee;” we are all looking to find “someone special” in our time on this earth.

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“Sing Me to Sleep” “The Search” “In the Matter of Cha Junh Hee”

No rating

Genre: Drama, Science Fiction, Documentary

Speakeasy rating: B