Centred on three generations of a family of rail workers and a laid-off factory worker staging a high-altitude sit-in, Mater 2-10 vividly portrays the lives of ordinary Koreans, starting from the Japanese colonial era, continuing through Liberation, and right up to the twenty-first century. It is at once a gripping account that captures a nation’s longing to be free from oppression, a lyrical folktale that manages to reflect the realities of modern industrial work, and a culmination of Hwang’s career ― a masterpiece thirty years in the making.

A true voice of a generation, Hwang shows again why he is unmatched when it comes to depicting the struggles of a divided nation and bringing to life the trials and tribulations of the Korean people.