Defectors 10-12PG

This affectionately rendered family portrait, bathed in empathy and delicate humour, explores the history of a divided Korea from a deeply personal perspective while also functioning as a search for identity for the filmmaker. South Korean director Hyun Kyung Kim, who now lives in the United States, grew up in a home where, as she says in the film, war is still being fought 70 years after peace was declared. Using her family narrative along with contemporary footage of North Korean defectors to provide a broader history of the two Koreas, Kim explores how the division and subsequent war, which was fought from 1950–1953, continues to have an impact on Korean life. The result is a profound meditation on how the past cascades through generations and how imperialism and war cast long and disruptive shadows on the lives of families and nations.