Timely and great news hit the media on the 8th Anniversary of Jeju’s designation as ‘The Peace Island” and the same day as the new declaration of Jeju as the “Demilitarized Peace Island”. Jeju was originally designated the “World Peace Island” on January 27, 2005 as a formal governmental apology for the terrible 4.3 Massacre which took place from 1947-1954. Jeju filmmaker O Muel‘s based-on-a-true-story film, Jiseul, which takes place during the 4.3 Jeju Massacre has won the Grand Jury Prize in the “World Cinema Dramatic” section of the Sundance Film Festival. Hopefully this will help to bring 4.3 the attention of more people. Tonight in Gangjeong, there was a special screening of O Muel’s previous film “Nostalgia”. Jiseul will make its out-of-festival Korean premier on Jeju Island on March 1st. Previously Jiseul was chosen as Korea’s Best Indie Film of 2012 by the Association of Korean Independent Film and Video.
More details about the Sundance win can be found in this article.
An interview with the director about the film can be found here.
Official Poster for Jiseul, which means “Potato” in Jeju dialect.
Celebrating the film’s prize at Sundance, Director Cho Sung-bong, maker of the film “Red Hunt” about the 4.3 massacre, paid tribute to the film and Sundance creator Robert Redford here (In Korean only).
