AI company Utopai Studios has announced it will co-produce and invest in Half Moon, the debut feature film from South Korean director Hyo-joo Yang. The project will also involve partners in Germany and South Korea. Principal photography is set to start in Germany in August.
Utopai Studios will use its PAI artificial intelligence system to support select visual elements during production. The film is a co-production with Germany’s In Good Company and Korea’s Paper Barn Studios. Half Moon tells the story of a niece and aunt who are strangers to each other. They spend a fractured summer on a remote North Sea island, learning to understand one another amid themes of loneliness and family trauma. Yang, whose short film Broken Night won the Silver Bear at Berlin in 2010, described the project as a tale about pain carried from childhood and the possibility of compassion. The cast includes Rina Kim, Elisa Hofmann, and Ana Kim, with cinematography by Alexandra Medianikova.
