Nobel Peace Prize-winner Malala Yousafzai premiered her first documentary with Apple TV+ at the Toronto Film Festival and brought along an uplifting story about elderly female sea divers from South Korea that aligns closely with her activism.
Titled “The Last of the Sea Women,” the film focuses on the matriarchal haenyeo society, a community on the South Korean island of Jeju who pay their bills fishing with nothing but wetsuits, masks, flippers, baskets, and hooks.
Recognized by UNESCO as part of the intangible cultural heritage of the world, starting in 2016, this centuries-old community faces challenges in a proportion where many of its members are now at an advanced age.
In an interview with AFP, through Korean-American filmmaker Sue Kim, Yousafzai said, “I was looking for stories about strong women, and I heard about this film and said, ‘This is what I have been looking for. I am really in admiration of their physical and mental strength,” the 27-year-old activist and producer said.
“The haenyeo lifestyle inspires me—through their activism, through their relationship to nature, and because of the community they created.”
In the 1960s, about 30,000 woman divers were gathering marine life, like abalone and octopus, to feed their families. Today there are roughly 4,000 of them.
The movie showcases them sharing their experiences with the arduous job-which includes holding their breath underwater, often for as long as two minutes up with stunning visuals underwater.
It also zeroes in on how the community is trying to revive its traditions through training and digital platforms, while at the same time avoiding overfishing.
Also reported is the potential threat they perceive from the discharge of wastewater from Japan’s Fukushima nuclear site into the Pacific Ocean.
The director Kim, as a child, came across haenyeo divers and said she was drawn to their confidence and boldness. “They are so strong, not only physically but also in being an advocate of the environment and future generations,” she said in an interview with AFP.
