A Petal is the story of a 15-year old girl who is an unwitting victim of the political upheaval that rocked South Korea in 1980.  The girl's brother, who was forced into military service because of his student activism, later dies inexplicably during boot camp training. 

Shortly thereafter, the girl sees her mother, an innocent bystander, shot during the course of the Kwangju citizen's uprising. 

These two events cause the girl to lose her sense of reality.   After her mother's shocking death the girl sets out to find her brother whom she still believes to be alive.  She goes north in the direction of Seoul, stopping for a while in the coastal town of Daechun.  Here she stumbles on a man, Jang, a common laborer, whom she in her unstable mental state confuses with her brother. 

The girl follows the man home and their relationship develops into one of compassion on the part of the laborer.  While living with Jang, the girl is unable to function normally; her behavior varies little from either sleep or mumbling incoherently in the comer of the room.  Jang does not know who the girl is and only gradually becomes aware that she must have been the victim of some sort of incredible trauma. 

Throughout the film, childhood friends of the girl's brother attempt to track her down, but the girl somehow slips through their fingers to continue her journey on her own.  The movie concludes with Jang searching for her in a cemetery. 
 

<AWARDS> 
 -Pacific Asian Film Festival in New Zealand 
       : Best Actor 
       : Best Actress 
       : Best Picture