The extraordinary story of an Australian woman's search for her soldier son's grave in war-torn South Korea will be the centrepiece of this year's Korean Film Festival.
Passage to Pusan follows the arduous journey undertaken by Brisbane woman Thelma Healy in 1961 to locate the resting place of Sergeant Vincent Joseph Healy, 10 years after his death during the Korean War.
The story remained within the Healy family until three years ago when Thelma's granddaughter, journalist Louise Evans, was handed the diary she kept during her trip to Korea.
"When I read that diary I thought, 'Wow, there's a book in this'," Evans told AAP.
After two years researching both Thelma and Vince's life, Evans finished the book and discovered just how extraordinary her grandmother's journey had been as the first bereaved Australian mother to visit the Pusan (modern-day Busan) graveyard.
"My grandmother was a woman of no means, a very poor woman. It was a trip of a lifetime for her to visit her son's grave," she said.
Evans wasn't the only one who saw the story's appeal. The book caught the eye of Sinyoung An, the director of the Korean Cultural Centre Australia, who thought it would make a great documentary.
He secured funding from the Korean and Australian governments, as well as the Australia-Korea Foundation, allowing Evans to retrace her grandmother's journey with the help of a crew from Arirang TV, Korea's English-language broadcaster.
"We travelled over 1000kms in two mini-vans over two weeks, nine Koreans and me," Evans said.
"It was my trip of a lifetime... incredibly emotional, incredibly challenging and very educational. I felt a lot of pressure to retell the story factually and with honour and respect.
"As a journalist I thought, 'This has to be right'. As a family member, I wanted it to be respectful and honourable. And then, of course, I had to deal with my own emotions of retracing her steps so there was an awful lot going on behind every scene."
'Passage to Pusan' author Louise Evans kneeling at the grave of her uncle Australian soldier Vincent Healy. Source: AAP
The making of the documentary, which also involved interviews in Australia with Thelma's four remaining children, Korean war veterans and historians was a fast and intense process.
"There's a Korean expression 'bali bali' and it means 'hurry hurry', it's very much a part of the Korean culture and since February when we first started it has been 'bali bali'," Evans said.
"This has been an opportunity of a lifetime but it has been a white-knuckle ride."
* Passage to Pusan premieres at the annual Korean Film Festival in Australia, held in every capital city August 17-September 23.
