Isle Child

Si Miller (Ethan Hwang, Riceboy Sleeps) leads an idyllic life as a teenager in Concord, Massachusetts, reveling in the camaraderie of his baseball teammates and blessed with the unyielding support of his loving parents (Samantha Mathis, Sam Robards). His self-assured personality comes crashing down when he receives a phone call from an adoption agency, informing him of his South Korean birth mother’s illness. The news complicates Si’s perfectly constructed self-image, thrusting him into a complex space between his Korean heritage and his American identity. In his absorbing feature debut, Thomas Percy Kim perceptively and compassionately examines the challenging feelings of otherness that manifest from Si’s precarious circumstances, along with the universal desire to belong. Gorgeous cinematography captures Hwang’s stunning performance and paints a breathtakingly beautiful portrait of Si’s search for his place in the world. —Jordan Klein