Film: "Defectors" (2023)
Thursday, October 30, 2025 6:30–8:00 PM
- Location
- DescriptionLearning Beyond the Classics: Voicing Intergenerational Trauma in Postwar Korea and Japan through Contemporary Cinema
Directed by Hyun kyung Kim
Not Rated, 84 minutesIn English and Korean with English subtitles
Director Hyun kyung Kim scheduled to appear live!
This documentary explores the lasting impact of the Korean War while revealing the weight it still exerts to this day on several generations of the filmmaker's family. South Korean filmmaker Hyun kyung Kim grew up with the inherited burden of the Korean War, a conflict that left an indelible mark on her family and country. Her mother compulsively fills the house with items she finds on the streets of Seoul while her veteran father devours books about the war. The filmmaker's encounter with a North Korean defector mirrors the story of her grandfather, who likely stayed in the North when the country became divided, never to be seen again by his family. Defectors confronts the impact of a brutal war on several generations of the filmmaker's family.
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*Free for ND, SMC, HC, and IUSB students.
**Co-presented by the David A. Heskin and Marilou Brill Endowment for Excellence, Liu Institute for Asia and Asian Studies, Franco Family Institute for Liberal Arts and the Public Good, East Asian Languages and Cultures, Navari Family Center for Digital Scholarship/Hesburgh Libraries. - Websitehttps://events.nd.edu/events/2025/10/30/defectors-2023/
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