Exploring similar themes to Kim Dong-won‘s Repatriation (2004) and from the Director / Producer team that brought you Planet of Snail (2011, LKL review) and the Oscar-nominated Sewol documentary In the Absence (2018, LKL review), this is a must-see:
Shadow Flowers (그림자꽃) theatrical release
Revealing a rarely discussed but strongly enforced law in South Korea, Shadow Flowers follows Ryun-hee Kim, a North Korean woman, who finds herself trapped in South Korea, from where it is illegal to cross to the North.
Desperate to return to her family and loved ones, Kim tried to smuggle herself out and even sought political asylum at the Vietnamese Embassy, but she has become a South Korean citizen and the ban on corssing the border is absolute.
Over seven years of struggle, increasing political absurdity hinders her journey back home.