Aloners

The young Jina, an excellent employee in a call centre, chooses to avoid contact with her co-workers as much as she can. As if she is in a bubble, she answers the clients’ questions without emotion, quickly and efficiently. During lunch break she secludes herself by staring at her smartphone. At the diner she always picks a spot where she can sit alone undisturbed. After work she hurries home to her small apartment and kills time by watching tv. She does not feel the need for contact and investing in new relationships is not her thing. But a couple of unexpected events turn her shielded existence upside down: a new employee’s training, a neighbour’s anonymous death and her estranged father’s phone calls and texts.

The film describes a phenomenon called ‘holojok’ in South-Korea: being single and alone by choice. The director confessed that she was ‘holojok’ for a while herself. Nevertheless, the film suggests that the cause of Jina’s behaviour might be something different.