Kinamann

“There are two black-and-white photos of me, taken in the orphanage. On one of them, I'm sitting on a tricycle, staring straight into the camera. The corners of my mount are turned down. It's hard to decide my age, but around 2 seems a good bet. A piece of fabric has been fastened to the cycle – it is a label with number series K82-4248. That is the number entered into my reports. The other picture is a portrait and I look a little younger. My hair is shorter, but the eyes are just as sad. This time a label has been pinned to my sweater, and it is the same number: K82-4248. To my mind, it looks like a photo of a prisoner.” In 1983, when Jung Suh-soo was nearly 3, a couple adopt him and bring him to Norway from South Korea. His name is now Gjermund Brekke and his home is in the small municipality of Feios in Sogn og Fjordane district. He grows up in this idyllic west coast setting, an only child and sole inheritor of the farm, but feels a stranger. Kinamann is about being adopted, about sheep and farming, about a huge father figure, the lovely Norwegian landscape – and about waking up in the middle of the night and feeling misplaced.