A bored employee in a thrift store gets scolded by the owner for not being proactive enough. Even the fish in the tank are watching the drama unfold. (PARK Sungho)

MA – Cry of Silence is a story about Mi-Thet, an 18-year-old woman. She becomes the head of the household in Myanmar, a country that has gone through a humanitarian crisis following a coup d’état, experiencing the collapse of her community and family. As the military systematically destroys rural villages under the pretext of eliminating resistance forces, young people flock to the cities. Mi-Thet gets a job at a garment factory with others in similar circumstances and leads a life commuting between the dormitory and the factory. Enduring frequent blackouts and the constant sound of gunfire, she suffers from poor meals and demands for overdue rent but persistently continues to send money to her family. In this precarious existence, non-payment of wages becomes a significant crisis in her life. Her colleagues, who are fed up with sexual harassments and unpaid wages, go on strike, but Mi-Thet hesitates to join them. Thus, her youth, which should have been bright, becomes marked by darkness and bitterness. (PARK Sungho)

The extraordinary unearthing of more than three decades of extensive news report footage on Israel and Palestine by Swedish national public broadcaster SVT, runs at only two hundred minutes. Documentarist Göran Hugo Olsson is well known for his works based on archival materials such as The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 (2011), Concerning Violence (2014), and That Summer (2017). His newest film presents both sides of the story through the eyes of a neutral nation, and it is evident that the filmmaker has taken tens of thousands of hours to painstakingly select the images that depict how the harrowing history of conflict runs its course. This is not just about what happened in the past, but about what is actually going on in this world we live in today. (Karen PARK)

Can a person be born anew? Kaneko’s Commissary is a work that examines what it means to be human from various aspects and strives to find hope for people. Kaneko, imprisoned for violence, was a man who would get angry even at his wife if she came to visit. It was the power of family - his wife, child, and uncle - that led this good-for-nothing to start a new life. Kaneko now runs a commissary that provides items to people imprisoned like he once was and visits them on behalf of their families. However, the peace is shattered when a young girl, his son’s friend, is found dead. Although the murderer is arrested, Kaneko, who had granted a favor to the murderer’s mother, is cornered and becomes enraged while trying to protect his son. The specter of his past, when he succumbed to violence, captures him again. While depicting a man’s struggle for salvation, it’s a work that stands out for its meticulous story that makes good and evil look at each other like mirrors, and features solid performances by the cast. (NAM Dong-chul)

Julie is a promising tennis player at a tennis academy. Just before the Belgian Tennis Federation (BTF) scout test, an unfortunate incident occurs at the academy. After the suicide of another teenage prodigy, Aline, an internal investigation begins, and head coach Jeremy is suspended. People suspect that Julie, Jeremy’s favorite student, might know something and hope she will testify. However, Julie remains silent, focusing solely on her practice. The film carefully builds the drama around this sensitive incident, leaving the specifics of emotional domination and abuse that can occur between a teenage female athlete and an adult male coach largely unstated. Through her silence, the violence of pressuring Julie to speak out is suggested. Meanwhile, Julie slowly comes to understand how she should act. The Dardenne brothers participated as co-producers. (LEE Juhyun)

Detective Go Geon-su (Lee Sun-kyun) of the violent crimes unit truly goes all the way. On the day of his mother’s funeral, he hits someone in a traffic accident and covers it up, only to be embroiled in further criminal activities after receiving threats from a witness. Lee Sun-kyun perfectly dominates the film from start to finish as the lead responsible for this entire pandemonium. The actor brilliantly portrays Geon-su, who is visibly anxious, uneasy, and flustered, yet becomes irritable and snappy when cornered - a typical fighting cock who never loses his nerve even in front of the relentlessly aggressive Park Chang-min (Jo Jin-woong). Lee’s energy and way of speaking match perfectly with the character. And it’s not just his one-man show. The acting ensemble in the intense chase and fight scenes, where bodies clash against each other, is also perfectly synchronized in breath and rhythm. (JEONG Jihye)

In a Nepalese border town inhabited by the Madhesi people, two boys are kidnapped, and Detective Pooja arrives to solve the case. Upon her arrival, the region is in the throes of protests against racial discrimination, and trust in the police has plummeted due to brutal crackdowns. No one from the Madhesi community is willing to speak about the case, and as Pooja digs deeper, she comes face to face with the deep-seated racism and misogyny in the town. Inspired by true events during the 2015 anti-racism uprisings in southern Nepal, this film is both a gripping police thriller, with a female detective using her wits to solve the case, and a social drama highlighting corruption, racial discrimination, and gender inequality in contemporary Nepal. (HONG Soin)

Lao San is about a boy named Erguang in a rural village, whose father is absent and mother plans to go to the city for work. He has to move to his aunt’s home while he is only obsessed with finding his friend. (PARK Sungho)

In a quiet seaside village, Xiao Kui, a lively girl with many dreams, is just as eager to help her mother Hongjv with her Maoqiang opera performances as she is to play with her friends. Since Xiao Kui’s father never returned from the sea, Hongjv has shouldered the burden of supporting the family alone. Her most shining moments are when she steps on stage as an opera actor. But now, with few people interested in traditional opera and Xiao Kui falling ill, their lives are suddenly swept into a turbulent current. While the film depicts unavoidable moments of pain and loss, its true theme is resilience—how we bounce back from such moments. Much like the balloons fluttering around the village, wishing for the safe return of those who went to sea, pain is ever-present in their lives, but so are the warm wishes for each other’s well-being. Blue Sea is a heartwarming film brimming with such kindness. (HONG Soin)

Can one imagine 2012 without Tabu and Holy Motors? Tabu was a blessing for cinephiles and remains one of the greatest films since the 21st century In Lisbon, Aurora, near death, dreams of reuniting with her old lover Gian Luca again. However, Luca arrives too late and tells her friend of their forbidden love, which took place 50 years ago in the Portuguese colony of Mozambique. The Portuguese colonizers live in a small community in luxurious villas, enjoying hunting and ‘60s pop music. They seem oblivious of the independence struggle brewing in Mozambique. Miguel gomes films a seemingly eternal and dreamlike melodrama, as Aurora leaves her husband and the settler community to flee with Luca into the African jungle. As in Murnau’s movies, the lovers break taboos, and their love is cursed. The tragedy that they face is not only connected to the lovers, but also to the era itself, as revolutionaries would soon drive the Portuguese colonizers away from their land. Tabu borrows the form of a silent film to tell a love story, but director Miguel Gomes knows all too well that no nostalgia is possible in the face of the march of history. (SEO Seunghee)

This is a documentary about the film life of Kim Dong-ho, who served as the Festival Director from the first to the fifteenth edition of the Busan International Film Festival(BIFF) and was a key member in shaping the festival into what it is today. At an age when most civil servants would consider retirement, Kim Dong-ho took on the role of BIFF’s Director, demonstrating an endless passion for Korean cinema, unique charisma, and unimaginable energy. His efforts helped promote Korean cinema to the world and made him a representative figure of the Korean film industry. In addition, the documentary captures his various film activities as a director and actor, and by showing him as a person as well, it reveals the many faces of him. Featuring appearances by renowned directors representing Korean cinema, such as Im Kwon-taek, Lee Jang-ho, Lee Chang-dong, and Chung Ji-young, as well as Kore-eda Hirokazu, and actors like Park Joong-hoon and Zo In-sung, with narration by actress Ye Ji-won, this documentary presents a comprehensive portrait of Kim Dong-ho. Even at the age of 87 this year, this “young man of cinema” continues to walk steadily through the forest of cinema. (JO Ji-hoon)

Seventeen-year-old Ze attends a modern school in Ulaanbaatar, while also leading a traditional life as a shaman and communing with ancestral spirits. Unlike his older sister, who is grappling with the gap between urban life and traditions, Ze appears to maintain a good balance. When he goes to perform a rite for Maralaa, a rebellious and unstable girl of his age who is about to undergo surgery, he finds himself drawn to her, igniting a desire within him. City of Wind centers on the teenage protagonists on the cusp of adulthood and questions the values and the boundaries between individual desires and communal responsibilities, tradition and modern, urban and rural, and realistic life and spiritual life. The uncertainties, confusion, and loneliness that the teens face in this film reflect the anxieties of Mongolia’s youth in a society undergoing rapid changes. The film won the Orizzonti Best Actor Award at the 2023 Venice Film Festival. (HONG Soin)