While a cellist with autism relentlessly keeps challenging, his mother is getting to refuse to communicate with the world.

Donghan, a man with autism, started playing cello at the age of 12 for the purpose of music therapy. Until recently graduating from the Graduate School of Music, he managed to study and perform nonstop. Haesook, his mother, guards her only son like a shadow. Donghan started his career as a cellist for a 5-member quintet, “Small Big” at the suggestion of an anonymous benefactor. All of the team members are developmentally challenged like Donghan. Therefore, whenever there is practice or performances, a group of 10 people travels together including the mothers. However, Donghan’s mother becomes exhausted from the tight performance schedules is not happy with how the team reduces practice hours. Eventually, the team breaks up as the incident of a delayed payment of wages for Small Big full-time instructors is revealed. Haesook starts a new orchestra, “Laonzena” with 18 mothers of developmentally challenged performers. The mothers, who were used to receiving help from others, make their own decisions from selecting instructors to practice and performance schedules. Nonetheless, even though they sympathize with each other, each has different purposes and goals. The ensemble continues without knowing who the performance is for.

1% of the earth’s population, about 75 million people are autistic. They are unable to express their emotions with words or actions, having difficulty communicating for the rest of their life. Scientifically, they have yet to find out why they live in a such way. However, the only differences from ordinary people are the five senses. Although taste, smell, and touch would be hard to visibly present over the screen if we are able to indirectly express their sense of sight and hearing, wouldn’t it be possible to uphold their cause for having communication issues? In addition, until death separates them, the mother and child live with different purposes and goals. As the mother traps herself as a social sinner with a child with no communication, she, too is gradually closing the door that was open to the world. Do we open the door for those who have nothing to do with me?