[Dispatch | Cannes, France = Jung Tae-yoon]"It had to be Sakura Ando."Director Jung Joo-ri is a filmmaker excelling at conveying social messages through focused character work. All three feature films she has released so far have been invited to the Cannes Film Festival.

"Dohi-ya," "Next Sohee," and now "Dora."Previously, she concentrated on how a single person becomes isolated and left with no choice but to face death. This time, she wanted to maximize the inexplicable emptiness that a character possesses.

The first casting was not for Dora, but for Nami. Nami is a Japanese woman living in a village on the south coast of Korea. She is also a figure on whom Dora's gaze frequently rests.

Director Jung said, "Sakura Ando is an actress who brings out entirely different faces with each work yet always resolves to Ando Sakura. Among that diversity, there was a distinct quality that felt like Nami."Dispatch met director Jung Joo-ri and Ando Sakura near the Palais des Festivals in Cannes, France.

◆ Freud's Dora

"Dora" tells the story of a girl named Dora (played by Kim Do-yeon) who suffers from terrible ailments of body and mind, leaving Seoul to stay at a seaside villa in midsummer, where everything gradually shakes as she experiences love for the first time.

Director Jung was inspired by "Analysis of a Case of Hysteria" (Dora), one of Freud's case study works. Freud focuses on analyzing the complex psychological elements that a sensitive girl experiences with those around her.

However, this treatment fails, and Dora is recorded as a hysteric patient given to concealment and deception.Director Jung inverted this case. She transformed it into a human who could heal and rise on her own.

She hoped for a being losing light amid pain to become an instance of complete recovery and leap forward.Director Jung said, "When I was younger, I found it interesting from Freud's perspective.

But at some point, everything seemed inverted. I wondered, 'Is Dora's voice here?'""I felt I should listen to her position as well, so I rewrote the story. Looking again, Dora was not a desiring subject but an object of desire. So I wanted to tell a story about Dora becoming the subject of desire and how far she could go." (Jung Joo-ri)

◆ Ando Sakura, First Korean Film

Ando Sakura is among her generation of Japanese actresses the one with the most overwhelming award record and is an acting talent. Through "Dora," she takes on a leading role in a Korean film for the first time.

She plays the role of Nami. Five years after undergoing breast cancer surgery, Nami organized everything and came to a village on the south coast of Korea, her husband's hometown.

She falls into an unexpected emotional whirlwind because of Dora.Initially, she declined the role. She said, "I think language has a tremendous impact on accepting a film.

I thought that using a language I cannot speak hinders immersion."However, director Jung's letter moved her heart. "She said I didn't need to speak Korean. Japanese or English would be fine.

She said she would adjust the dialogue to fit me, which is what made me decide," she conveyed.In fact, director Jung revised all the dialogue to fit Ando. She revealed, "Digesting dialogue in a state where I couldn't speak Korean at all turned out to be a much more difficult problem than I had thought."

"I decided to find the language of someone who has been living in Korea for five years. A language only Nami could speak. For example, something like 'gwangyegeopseuo' (doesn't matter). And I worked while realizing that much is conveyed when not speaking." (Jung Joo-ri)Ando agreed.

"When I did it in Japanese, sometimes my acting felt tied to the words. Even if I say 'thank you,' sometimes the emotion of gratitude is felt, and sometimes negative emotions come across, doesn't it? I don't think words are everything," she added.

◆ "Don't endure—let go and it surfaces

"Ando Sakura performs in the film mixing Japanese and Korean. Though her Korean is clumsy, each word she utters carries power.

The line that resonated most strongly in the film also came from her mouth.She said, "I remember exactly 'don't endure—let go and it surfaces.' I spoke the dialogue knowing the meaning of every single word. I wanted that line to dye naturally, as if it were seeping in."

"When Nami spoke this line, I delivered it with the feeling of remaining like a living organism floating on the sea. I wanted to enter the picture visible within the script." (Ando Sakura)

Director Jung also ran toward that single moment. She said, "It was the most important line. I wondered how Nami could move toward that statement," emphasizing, "I made an effort so that this line could be the words that best reveal Nami.

"All the adults surrounding Dora possessed dual natures. People who were neither simply good nor simply evil. Nami was the same. Ando Sakura did not try to artificially create that foreign quality.

She entrusted it to nature."If you perform with answers already set, you remain confined to that. I concentrated on the moment I created with each person. When you act while focusing on important parts, I thought Nami's foreign quality would naturally follow." (Ando Sakura)

◆ Dora, Kim Do-yeon

Kim Do-yeon, from I.O.I, took on her first film leading role. The Dora she plays is a sensitive child who has suffered from neurasthenia since childhood.

She forms relationships with various people in a seaside village and experiences emotional communication for the first time.The film portrays her awakening to her own desire and gaining wishes toward others, then the process of claiming them.

Director Jung explained, "We confirmed Sakura Ando's casting first, then held auditions for Dora afterward.""I had to consider the combination of the two actresses.

After lengthy auditions, she was selected. Dora and Nami have contrast in appearance itself, but when I thought about the two of them conversing together, I felt the combination of their voices was so good." (Jung Joo-ri)

Ando Sakura recalled of Kim Do-yeon, "I was truly grateful that Dora was Do-yeon. There was a part where we leaned on each other and endured," adding, "We speak different languages, but there was something that transcended that. It felt like a more special team.

"The two had to handle scenes with high intensity. Ando said, "I made a promise to Do-yeon. This film will remain forever, so if anything weighs on my heart even slightly, I told her I would be on Do-yeon's side," and her eyes reddened.

"I wanted to protect myself, protect Do-yeon, and protect the work as well. And as someone who has a child, I thought about wanting to change things in a way fitting for this era." (Ando Sakura)

Director Jung also revealed, "As a female director handling intimate scenes, if I don't do it properly, there's no next time. So I planned and prepared on how to consult with the female cinematographer. It was truly difficult."

◆ Audiences' Dora

"Dora" was completed through cross-border collaboration, with French female cinematographer Irina Lubtchanski, visual effects work in Korea and France, sound work in Korea and Luxembourg, and color grading in France.

It was also selected as an official invitation to the Directors' Fortnight of the 79th Cannes Film Festival. It was chosen as an experimental and progressive work in a free atmosphere.

It made its world premiere to audiences at Theatre Croisette in Cannes. What kind of work will "Dora" remain for her? Director Jung opened by saying, "It's been ten days since the film was completed.

I'm not sure yet.""When I look back, I always think I'm telling stories of lonely people. Now I'm wondering, should I distance myself from loneliness? Now I want to rest a beat and think more broadly." (Jung Joo-ri)

Ando Sakura also conveyed her ambition to participate in films from various countries through this work. She said, "I was moved by the very act of making a film by bringing together the hands of people from different countries.

It heightened my sense of ambition.""I newly felt that film is a noble medium that can reach the hearts of people with different cultural backgrounds. I've developed the desire to participate not only in Korean but in films from other countries as well." (Ando Sakura)