BIFF to open with story of North Korean woman defector

The Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) will open on Oct. 4 with “Beautiful Days,” a movie about a woman defector who meets her son after 14 years, the festival’s board of directors has announced. The 23rd annual festival will run through Oct. 13.

Directed by Jero Yun, the film depicts the life of a North Korean woman who came to South Korea after leaving her husband and young son in China.

Following her journey of suffering to survive, the film shows the difficulties facing women defectors, many of whom were “sold” to Chinese farms by human traffickers and who then fled to South Korea. Many were separated from their children born in China.

Lee Na-young will return to the screen after six years to play the defector mother. Jang Dong-yoon plays the Korean-Chinese son.

Director Yun is known for his films about North Korea, including “Mrs. B., a North Korean Woman (2016),” about a North Korean woman who is smuggled between the two Koreas and China, and “Looking for North Koreans (2012),” which deals with human trafficking.

By Jung Da-min

(Korea Times)