# ‘Fighting an impossible fight is the only way to reclaim dignity’: Lee Chang-dong on class warfare and his searing Oscar contender

- URL: https://talkfuse.com/story/fighting-an-impossible-fight-is-the-only-way-to-reclaim-dignity-lee-chang-dong-on-class-warfare-and-his-searing-oscar-contender/
- Published: 2026-10-23T12:00:25+00:00
- Updated: 2026-10-23T12:38:31+00:00
- Original publisher: The Guardian (publisher lean: Left)
- Original article: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/oct/23/lee-chang-dong-possible-love-director-interview
- Topics: Business, Companies, Culture, Entertainment, Film, Horror, Research, Science

## Key points

- Lee Chang-dong’s *Possible Love* examines redundancy and class tensions.
- It draws on a 2009, 77-day workers’ occupation in South Korea.
- The film won the Venice Film Festival’s grand jury prize.

## Summary

Lee Chang-dong’s new film, *Possible Love*, explores how mass redundancies affect workers and their families, alongside questions about who has the right to tell their stories. Inspired by a 2009 strike at Ssangyong Motors, the film examines labour’s relationship with capital and the widening gulf between people with little economic power and the wealthy.

The Ssangyong workers occupied their factory for 77 days to protest planned cuts affecting 37 to 43 per cent of staff; riot police eventually ended the protest. Lee says the crackdown was followed by suicides and lasting mental health problems, which made him question whether he could responsibly tell the story. The film places a documentary-maker’s interest in a laid-off worker and his wife within a wider encounter between two couples, and won the grand jury prize at the Venice Film Festival.

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Summarised by TalkFuse (https://talkfuse.com/). Quote the original publisher for the reporting and link this page for the summary and discussion.