Screening accompanied by an introduction.

Kim Dongwon is an unusual documentarist, who despite his awareness of the urgency of a given situation, rarely responds to it right away. He has often been classed as an ‘activist’, but the way in which he manifests as an artist is considerably slow and cautious. Two decades on, The 2nd Repatriation is the sequel to his 2003 film Repatriation, which examined the lives of long-term unconverted political prisoners repatriated to North Korea. In the follow-up, Kim Dongwon focuses instead on the long-term prisoners who, though they ‘converted’ through coercion, still hope for repatriation to North Korea; in particular, a character by the name of Kim Youngshik. However, as much as the documentary is about Kim Youngshik and the ‘converted’ long term political prisoners, it is also about Kim Dongwon himself. Here we come face to face with those mighty individuals who tell eloquently of how, for them, the 20th-century was never over, and was drawn to a halt by force, in danger of being buried entirely.

Yoo Un-seong