Parasite and the rise of arthouse Korean film

The first non-English language film to win the Best Picture Oscar, Parasite lit not just the critics alight but punters too. Rarely has one film - a relatively low budget, highly culturally specific film at that - created such a global talking point. Who or what is to blame here? Is it capitalism? Class warfare? Morality gone awry? Wealth? Who is the real parasite, if there is one? What about the mad tonal shifts in the film from comedy to horror? Join Zoe and Tom as they unpick the extreme excitement around Parasite, the 2019 film directed by Bong Joon-ho, and place it in wider context. 

Om Podcasten

A podcast for the culturally curious that turns a critical eye on some of the most-hyped plays, books, films and music in recent years and asks where they came from and what they tell us about culture today. Zoe Strimpel is a historian of gender and intimacy, Sunday Telegraph columnist and sincere contrarian. Tom Stammers is a fair-minded historian of 19th century France and a lecturer in European history at Durham University - who nonetheless knows how to turn the screw when necessary. They've been yammering about culture together since university.