Pieta

A solitary loan shark working for a ruthless moneylender seeks redemption after meeting a mysterious woman who claims to be his long-lost mother in this brutal crime drama from acclaimed South Korean director Kim Ki-duk (3-Iron, Arirang). Lee Kang-do (Lee Jung-jin) is a debt collector whose brutal methods have earned him a ferocious reputation. Operating in a dingy factory district, he will cripple, main, and brutalize in order to collect insurance money, even if it means his victims will never work again. Kang-do is completely devoid of empathy or emotion when an older woman (Cho Min-soo) appears on his doorstep, and begs forgiveness for abandoning him as a child. Initially skeptical of her claims Kang-do coldly pushes her away. The more she persists, however, the more their relationship begins to grow until the cold-hearted collector begins to gain a conscience, and decides to leave his life of crime. But it may already be too late for Kang-do, because a horrific secret from his distant past may have sealed his grim fate long before he decided to take control of it. An uncompromising drama from a visionary filmmaker, Pieta was the recipient of the prestigious Golden Lion at the 2012 Venice Film Festival.