Neither Fish, Nor Fowl (2002)

Adopted as a baby in Korea and raised in a provincial German town, Michael has two identities. Unable to look in the mirror without feeling the hole in his history, he longs to know and be assured of his own identity. When his adoptive parents divorce, Michael feels lost and runs to his best friend in Berlin. But it's a new confrontational friendship with beautiful Jin Hi that forces him to re-examine himself. In Berlin's Korean community Michael is "neither fish nor fowl", a Korean-German with no knowledge of Korean language and tradition. Trapped between two cultures, Michael's realization that he's a stranger in his own home stirs him to question what it is that defines oneself. Underscored by stark photography, luminous performances, and a deeply echoing script, Neither Fish Nor Fowl transforms the terrain of self-awareness into a strange, lonely, and desperately universal story.