While I was on vacation in Jeju Island, I got a call from Kim Ok-young, the producer of the film, that she happened to read a book of poetry, and I wanted to make a documentary film of the poems and the stories of the poets, and asked if I could direct it. The title of the book was "This is the City of Machinery," and I thought it was a little unusual because all the authors were Nepalese migrant workers living in Korea. As soon as I went back to Seoul, I read the collection of poems, and was fascinated by them. I had seen some films or TV programs related to migrant workers, but most of them were in the form of reportage or in the form of TV shows. But the world of migrant workers, unraveled in the language of high metaphors and symbols of poetry, gave me a fresh sense of their reality, which I could only have guessed. There was also a sense of challenge as a director of how it would be if the written language poetry was newly translated into the visual language called the film, so I eventually embarked on this film. Since I started, I now notice even more migrant workers on the streets and in restaurants when I go on business trips or film in the suburbs. They have always been there, however, and I reflect on whether my indifference has denied their existence.

The three main characters in this film are all young people in their early to mid-30s with college degrees or higher academic backgrounds. Although they weren’t paid much, they were elites in Nepal with their own distinguished jobs. How would they have felt when they had to choose a life of manual labor where the things they had studied for a long time were meaningless when they chose to come to Korea for economic stability? Perhaps that was why there was a significant amount of “self-esteem" mentioned in their poems. Whenever they were ignored, despised, and forced to work unjustly, perhaps they were protecting their self-esteem by writing poetry. The film features poetry recitation scenes that embody their inner landscape in many ways. I hope the audience appreciates and feels the poems.