Social & External
The people behind it
After defecting from North Korea, Loh Kiwan struggles to obtain refugee status in Belgium, where he encounters a dejected woman who has lost all hope.
Despite the close bonds among fellow defectors, Cheol-jun—a young North Korean defector—felt isolated while hiding his gay identity. Finally, he takes his first step into South Korea's vibrant gay community and forms close ties after meeting Yeong-jun at a casual gathering. Yet, a trivial misunderstanding shatters these fragile bonds.
Caught in forbidden love, Yong Joon defects from North Korea, leaving Jae Sung behind. Years later, a reunion forces him to choose between past and present.
Poongsan has the unenviable - and death-defying - job of delivering messages across the North and South Korean border to separated families. When South Korean government agents ask him to smuggle in In-ok, the lover of a high-ranking North Korean defector, into the South, the damsel and rescuer fall in love instead.
The North Korean defector, who has just settled in the South, is confused by his brother who was separated from the defection process. Ji-hyeok, a Chinese restaurant deliveryman who is having a hard time finding a job due to his criminal record, wants to leave Korea as soon as possible. To raise money for his defector brother, Ji-hyeok, who is involved in a dangerous drug-transport errand, suggests intercepting billions of won of methamphetamine.
Yong-soo is an ex-soccer player who lives in a small coal-mine village in North Korea with his wife and young son, Joon. Although living in extreme poverty like many other families in North Korea, the family is happy just to be with each other. Then one day, Yong-soo's pregnant wife becomes critically ill. Let alone medicine, Yong-soo can't even find food for her in North Korea. So he decides to secretly cross the border to China hoping to find the medicine for his wife.
Making use of her Chinese that she had picked up while living in China, Han-young obtains her tour guide-interpreter's license and starts working as a guide in Korea. She gets used to her new surroundings and gains good results at work. However, she is forced to face challenges and changes as she loses touch with her brother In-hyuk, and the number of Chinese tourists decreases due to political tension between Korean and China.
Stateless Things crosscuts between the lives of two young men, one an illegal immigrant from North Korea stuck in dead-end jobs, the other the kept boy of a married businessman stifling in a swanky apartment.
North Korean defector Seung-chul is a refugee living on the harsh edges of Seoul. Bewildered by exploitative employers and cynical urbanites, he’s no good for business. A powerful realism underscores this prize-winning feature debut about the struggle to survive in a strange new world.
At the request of his dying father, Zhenchen, a Chinese student, goes to Seoul in search of his mother, whom he has not seen for fourteen years. He soon discovers that she is working as a hostess in a bar…
Chang-ho, 12, becomes friends with a North-Korean immigrant about the same age who just crossed the Dooman river, border between North-Korea and China. His mute sister and his wise grandfather accompany him through a series of misfortunes.
Sul-ji, exiled from North Korea 2 years ago, is cheerful lady who is working at flower shop. Using her experience that drew propaganda paintings in North Korea, she draws wall-painting for part-timer. Desperate Broadcast producer Shin-woong, discovers her and trying to make hit documentary about her, but she hesitates minding her families still in North. Eventually she decides to go in under the condition that she hides her identity.
A young North Korean refugee fights to rebuild her life in fast-paced, hyper-modern South Korea, forcing her to confront the price of freedom and the past she left behind.
After completing his required decade of military service and being honored as a hero, a North Korean sergeant makes a sudden shocking attempt to defect to the South, risking life and limb for the chance to finally determine his own destiny.
North Korean Refugee Eunseo has been living in South Korea for 20 years. Now she is almost South Korean. No one knows she came from North Korea. Then her mother, who has been out of contact, comes to South Korea, and gets to live with her. People get to know that Eunseo came from North Korea, and Eunseo starts to feel uncomfortable with her mother.
After a few months of social adjustment training, the North Korean refugee Jina moves to a small studio in Seoul and starts her new life. To bring her father to South Korea, she needs money but no matter how hard she works, the discrimination doesn’t let her save enough money.
After losing her son while defecting from North Korea, Myung-sun meets a fellow defector, Sin-tek, who is the leader of the Church of the Fire. Through him, Myung-sun begins to learn about the doctrines of resurrection as they settle at a small town in South Korea.
After learning that his grandfather is alive and living in Seoul, a North Korean musician must leave his fiancee behind and accompany his family to South Korea.
A poor North Korean fisherman finds himself an accidental defector, and is groomed to be a spy by an ambitious South Korean military officer.
Mu-kwang volunteers to be a kitchen police of Sa-taek, the divisional commander, dreaming of success. One day, Mu-kwang meets Su-ryeon by chance, who is a young and beautiful wife of the commander. Soon, he feels a strong attraction by her.
After her stay-at-home husband leaves her, a workaholic lawyer finds that she is not completely up to the tasks of caring for her young son, ailing father and household all by herself.
Dreaming of making a way station for his sister and the villagers who have no choice but to commute along the dangerous train tracks every day, Joon-kyung sends many letters to the President, but with no reply. Ra-hee, who has a crush on Joon-kyung, does everything she can to help him meet the President.
The lives of 4 interconnected South Koreans – a married couple, a novelist the wife is having an affair with, and a second woman the novelist is simultaneously involved with.
A reporter, fired after refusing to give names to a 1951 House Un-American Activities Committee, takes a part-time job as companion to an old lady. While working she overhears a noisy argument in the neighboring house, being conducted largely in German and involving her HUAC prosecutor. She begins to investigate, enlisting the help of the FBI Agent initially detailed to surveil her.
A pair of twin brothers from East L.A. choose to live their lives differently and end up on opposite sides of the law.
Film producer Na-eun and director Yeong-tae are on the verge of shelving out cash for an adult film production. They're too busy blaming each other for the messed-up filming. Before another filming begins, Na-eun suggests Yeong-tae to become an actor himself and practice filming. Na-eun leads the shy Yeong-tae very skillfully. How far will the practice go...?
Jo, the mother of seven children, divorces her second husband in order to marry Jake, a successful but promiscuous screenwriter. Though they are physically and emotionally compatible, they are slowly torn apart.
A sweeping drama set in the chaotic aftermath of the US invasion of Iraq, where the life of top UN diplomat Brazilian Sérgio Vieira de Mello hangs in the balance during the most treacherous mission of his career.
Rory is an ambitious entrepreneur who brings his American wife and kids to his native country, England, to explore new business opportunities. After abandoning the sanctuary of their safe American suburban surroundings, the family is plunged into the despair of an archaic '80s Britain and their unaffordable new life in an English manor house threatens to destroy the family.
Abandoned by her father, a girl adjusts to life in an orphanage.
An aimless young man who is scalping tickets, gambling and drinking, agrees to coach a Little League team from the Cabrini Green housing project in Chicago as a condition of getting a loan from a friend.
Pil-ju, an Alzheimer's patient in his 80s, who lost all his family during the Japanese colonial era, and devotes his lifelong revenge before his memories disappear, and a young man in his 20s who helps him.
A jazz musician seeks refuge from a lynch mob on a remote island, where he meets a hostile game warden and the young object of his attentions.
A former Naval officer with a dark past must face off against an insurgent with a sound sensitive bomb.
Jae-wan, a successful lawyer, takes on the case of a rich executive's son, who has purposely run over and killed a man and left his daughter seriously injured. It's Jae-wan's job to defend a murderer, just another rung on his career's golden-stepped ladder. His younger brother, on the contrary, is a scrupulous and upstanding paediatrician, who always puts the health of his patients over profit and money, often contravening the rules of the private clinic where he works. The brothers meet once a month with their wives for fine dining in expensive restaurants, but when an unexpected situation involving their teenage kids arises, their consciences are questioned and their usual dinner conversation takes an unexpected turn.
Gentle and broken, a homeless man fights others on video for money but soon finds comfort in an unlikely friend and the lost diary of a young girl.
Thomas Montgomery, a married father of two young daughters, gets seduced by the world of online gambling and chat rooms where a virtual romance and sexual obsession ultimately leads to the murder of an innocent man.