Repatriation (2004) [N/A]
Written by:
Dong-won Kim
Directed by:
Dong-won Kim
Release Date:
March 19, 2004
Original Title:
송환
Alternate Titles:
Songhwan
Genres:
Documentary
Production Companies:
Indiestory
P.U.R.N Production
Production Countries:
South Korea
Ratings / Certifications:
KR: 12
Runtime: 149
In 1992, political prisoners from North Korea settled in the South Korean town where filmmaker Dong-won Kim lived. Sent to South Korea as spies during the war, they spent 30 years in jail. How did they endure the many years of torture? What will become of them now that they have been released? Twelve years in the making, Repatriation is a very personal view of a country divided by an ongoing cold war.
In the spring of 1992, Kim Dong-won, the film's director, met two long-term political prisoners who were charged with being communist spies from North Korea. During their 30 years in jail, the prisoners never gave up their allegiance to communism and North Korea. When they were finally released from prison, they began living in the Kim's neighborhood, and he became quite close with one of the prisoners, Cho Chang-son. Kim's film documents the former prisoners' return to mainstream Korean society and their campaign for repatriation. On the DVD container, Kim is quoted as saying: "As I met with many others of them, I became interested in these people, who were completely different from what I expected."
