Swiss-Korean director Hae-Sup Sin began his studies at the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK), graduating in 2019 with a bachelor‘s degree, which he then followed up with a master‘s degree in Feature Film Directing in 2025. 

With a number of short films under his belt, his latest effort, Half Moon (2026), has already screened in the likes of Palm Springs and South Korea’s Jeonju International Film Festival and is now showcasing in Karlovy Vary within the EFP’s Future Frames programme. The film is a sensitive character study which sees Annette and her adoptive son, Joel, travelling to South Korea to meet his biological mother. As the meeting unfolds, all those involved begin to question their own identities, the past and the potential future. Cineuropa caught up with Hae-Sup Sin to find out more about how personal the film is and how he came to play an acting role in his own film.

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Cineuropa: Can you tell us a little more about your background and what made you want to bring Half Moon to the big screen?
Hae-Sup Sin: I was born in Switzerland to an immigrant family from South Korea. While growing up bilingually, I struggled with my identity, being caught between two very different cultures, and with the fact that I looked different. But once I realized that that was exactly what made me unique, I started to gain confidence. I started making films that build bridges between those cultures and was looking for stories that could convey that ideology.

Can you tell us more about the casting process?
When it came to Lale Yavaş, a renowned Swiss actress who I’d met in a directing class in film school, I’d imagined Annette as much older when I was writing the script, but as the casting process went on, I became more open about the age limit and I started to really want to work with her.

Eun Jung Shin, who plays Minjeong, the biological mother, is a big name in the South Korean film and TV industry. I’d admired her work and when my DoP mentioned her for the role, I almost couldn’t believe it. They’d worked together on two projects, so we got the chance to offer her the role, which she said yes to very quickly.

Mina An, who plays the translator, Sharon, in Half-Moon, is another known actress from the Korean film industry. Despite not knowing her personally, we contacted her on Instagram and she agreed to join the cast, even though she’s currently transitioning to a more directorial role.

As for the role of Jihoon / Joel, the adopted son, we organised a huge casting call across all the German-speaking regions of Europe to find the right person. But since there weren’t many trained actors of Korean backgrounds who spoke German fluently, I decided to add myself into the casting mix, as a “plan B”. I feel much more comfortable behind the camera, but I took the role because I felt I understood the character from all the research I’d carried out with Korean adoptees. It wasn’t easy taking up multiple roles on set, but I learned so much about directing in the process.

I’d also like to know more about the film’s location.
From the very beginning, I was interested in telling this story in pretty much one location. I purposefully chose a traditional Korean restaurant where couples normally meet each other’s parents for the first time, because I felt it was kind of similar to the first meeting between two mothers. Visually speaking, I’ve been inspired by Ozu’s movies.

Can you tell me about how important it was for you to shift perspective in the film from that of the adoptee?
I felt that there were so many documentary and fiction films about this subject that were already out there, told from the perspective of adoptees, who know this experience better than I do. When talking to Korean adoptees, I often got the feedback that I could bring something different, because I didn’t have an adoption background and I could approach the story from a different perspective. Both mothers feel sorry and guilty in their own ways, yet they love their son and can’t handle the fact that there’s “the other mother”. But in the end, they realise they have to accept each other. That’s also the symbolism behind the film’s title.

What about the feature you’re currently working on?
Some Korean Summer (co-written by Fredi Thiele and produced by Abrakadabra Films) is a romance drama with coming-of-age elements which features two young people: Nina, a Swiss woman dealing with her mother’s death, and Jun, a Korean man struggling with the expectations of Korean society. Their encounter allows them to see life through each other’s eyes and to grow beyond the worlds they come from.