- Year: 2026
- Running time: 1h 38m
- Genre: Documentary
- US release: 5 February 2026
- Premiere: 10 September 2025
- Official website
- IMDb
There Are No Words
Directed by Min Sook Lee
Award-winning filmmaker Min Sook Lee turns the camera on herself in this urgent documentary, searching for memories of her mother, Song Ji Lee, who died by suicide when Lee was just 12 years old.
A NATIONAL FILM BOARD OF CANADA production.
Confrontational and speculative, There Are No Words contemplates how trauma fractures memory as Lee revisits the people and places of her childhood in Toronto, Canada, and Hwasun, South Korea, her place of birth.
A looming figure in this search is Lee’s now 90-year-old father, who met her mother while serving in a national intelligence agency under dictator Park Chung Hee in 1960s South Korea. He is her last direct connection to her mother, although he’s an unreliable narrator with a history of abuse who speaks in a mother tongue she cannot fully understand.
Through a fabric of real and imagined histories, Lee reveals that some stories must still be told, even when there are no words for grief.
TW: This film contains discussions of suicide, and the effects on survivors of suicide loss. If you need support services, please call your local Distress Centre. If you need immediate help, please call or text 9-8-8.
Official Selection 2026 Santa Barbara International Film Festival.
Official Selection of the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival.
Crew
Studios: National Film Board of Canada, ONF | NFB
This website uses TMDB and the TMDB APIs but is not endorsed, certified, or otherwise approved by TMDB.
Create a New Drop
Drops are your personal collections of films and shows. Create lists like "Movies to Watch" or "Best Thrillers" and add cards as you browse!
Add to Drop
Loading your drops...
You haven't created any drops yet.
Create your first drop above!
Your Drops
Edit Drop
Add Cover Image
Make your drop stand out with a cover image