Korea / 2016 / 112 min. / Director: KIM Ki-duk
North Korean fisherman Nam lives peacefully with his wife and child, until his net gets caught up in his engine and he inadvertently ends up crossing a watery border with South Korea. Upon being captured by South Korean police, he is tortured under suspicion of being a spy, and pressured to defect to the south. All he wants to do is return to his family, and his fierce determination eventually enables him to make it back to North Korea. He is outwardly welcomed by his nation as a hero who has overcome the temptations of capitalism, but an even crueler fate awaits him... The extreme violence that was a trademark of KIM Ki-duk’s works has been shelved for this film, a masterpiece that presents a profound depiction of one man at the mercy of political systems. RYOO Seung-bum’s passionate performance as Nam is one of its many highlights.
