“Mother Land” centers around a little girl named 'Krisha' and her younger brother 'Kolya' from a nomadic tribe called 'Yates' in the Tundra. While they adhere to a traditional lifestyle, 'Krisha' embarks on an adventurous journey to find the sacred spirit and owner of the land Red Bear so that her ill mother can be cured.

“Mother Land,” Korea’s first major 'stop-motion' animated film, did not use 3D effects in the film to better portray the mother nature story, the film’s director 'Park Jae-beom' told reporters.

“When I first thought about the storyline of ‘Mother Land,’ it was obvious for me to turn it into a stop-motion animation. Not only because I’m a huge fan of stop-motion animation, but because I wanted to portray a story of mother nature in the most analog way. We humans are also analog”, ‘Park’ said.

“I know the technologies for 3D effects are very advanced, but I wanted to remove 3D effects as much as possible. At the studio, we created snow and fire using Styrofoam and an aurora with fabrics, which only a stop-motion animation can do,” said Park.

It took three years and three months to complete production.

Endless snowy fields, a herd of thousands of caribou and a mesmerizing aurora were created by hand involving 36 staff members, who worked on making a total of 22 dolls. Using 10 different sets, it took 850 stop-motion scenes. One particular scene took as long as two days.

Director Park is hoping for international distribution of the film.

“I believe the biggest advantage of animated film is that it can become a medium that transcends cultural differences or borders. We are ready for overseas distribution, with complete subtitles.”

The film opens in local cinema on Jan. 25.