Unconventional family units are a mainstay of Japanese director Hirokazu Koreeda; with Broker, his first film made in Korea, he hones the theme to perfection. We begin on a stormy night, as an anonymous woman abandons her infant son at a church-operated baby hatch – a donation box for unwanted babies – unaware that she is being watched by two detectives who have suspicions that church employees Sang-hyeon (Song Kang-ho, of Parasite fame) and Dong-soo (Gang Dong-won) are acting as brokers, taking insufficiently documented babies and selling them on to childless parents. Complications ensue when So-young (Ji-eun Lee), the mother, reconsiders and wants her child back, but is persuaded by the brokers that placing the boy in a new home is the better choice, and that she should join them on a road trip to meet prospective parents.

Notes by David O’Mahony