In my ''Wrapping Up'' blog post, I would like to talk about ''At the Edge of the World'' in connection to the second and last question. The story really spoke to me, after visiting the North Korean Human Rights Conference last week and also, because the talk about immigration and refugees is such a big topic in Germany right now.
There were some scenes, were we could really feel the suffering the parents of the kids went through. But Marks father stood out especially for me because even at the beginning of the story it seemed like he thought about the past times a lot and in contrast to Marks mother - who scared nothing more than the past – talked about his live in North Korea from time to time as well. The scenes that stood out to me the most were, when Mark found his father on the ground and a shaman woman dancing around him, connecting him with his dead older brother. He was so sad and desperate, missing his dead brother so much, that he wanted to do anything to connect with him once more. He even did so much as asking a shaman to help him, which he knew would give a big problem with his wife, as she ''didn't do shamanism''.
The other scene that stood out to me, and also showed how desperately Marks father missed his family was the last scene, when Mark follows him to the cliff of the Grand Canyon. In the very beginning of the story we heart there were four refugees living in LA last year. Marks family and a guy who committed suicide some time before. All the things that described Marks fathers' actions in the story could have lead him to commit suicide as well, by jumping of the cliffs edge. The information of the guy committing suicide could have been a foreshadow. Then when Marks father didn't jump but sat on the dirty ground, lighting candles on the birthday cake for his dead uncle, we could feel his sadness again and his wish for reuniting with his family, which would never happen. I would say by doing those things, it helped him to get over his sadness a bit and feel more connected. But at the same time, he can't really go on with his live because he lives to much in the past and with his sad memories. The last scene where he hugs Mark for the first time and tells him for the first time that he loves him, makes me feel that he might have overcome a piece of the grieve of his past live.
Coming to my own experiences with missing someone you will never see again, I do know how it feels, though I could never compare it with the feelings the characters in the story must have felt. Knowing that and hearing their stories, what happened to them living in North Korea makes me terribly sad. All that makes me think of the German history again and how happy I am that I didn't have to live during that time. Both of my parents were there when the wall fell in Berlin and they sometimes told me how exited, happy and curious they were about the people of the east as they both living in Hamburg. Actually, a very close friend of our family used to live in the east and fled to the west after she was too afraid of staying in the east because of some things that happened to her friends. I don't know any details, just that she survived the ''killing zone'' where police fired at her by running through a corn field. She left everything behind, including her family, to get out of the east. What I am really proud of is the way the German people handled the reunion. There was and still isn't any discrimination towards the people from the east. People from both sides fell into each other's arms out of happiness of the reunion. I am sure there were still some obstacles and problems to overcome after the first wave of excitement went away, but I can say that I am proud of the way everything turned out.
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