NATIONAL ROUTE 7

On National Route 7 in Sokcho, a coastal city in South Korea, a soldier named Ju-young gets into a taxi driven by Dong-hoon. During the journey, Ju-young begins talking about a former elementary school classmate who recently died after working at a factory. Unable even to remember the classmate's name, Ju-young speaks dismissively about the death. What Ju-young does not know is that Dong-hoon is the mother of the deceased worker. Dong-hoon has been travelling to a factory in Suwon to stage a one-person protest, demanding accountability for her child's death. Yet her determination is increasingly challenged by those around her. Her husband, Min-jae, tries to stop her from protesting, while Yong-seon, who once stood alongside her, decides to put down the protest sign. When Ju-young enters Dong-hoon's taxi again, Dong-hoon tells the soldier that she has finally stopped protesting, as though the time has come to move on. Through their encounters and the lives connected to them, National Route 7 examines the different ways people respond to loss, injustice, and the pressure to behave as society expects.