The 22st Seoul Independent Animation Festival
Seoul Indie-AniFest20262026 17 SEP(THU) ~ 22 SEP(TUE)
Korea Special
Kim Bosol: Between Chamber and Square
[The Square](2026), released in South Korea in January of this year, was a widely discussed title that earned critical acclaim at film festivals around the world throughout 2025. Since the anti-communist propaganda films of the 1970s, animation dealing with North Korea as subject matter has been rare, and even today it tends to be approached through metaphor rather than direct depiction. Director Kim Bosol handled South Korea's presence indirectly, choosing instead to center the film on North Korean characters. The film reveals the process by which a Korean filmmaker — free to travel to nearly anywhere else on Earth — has convincingly portrayed a land he cannot legally enter and people he can never meet.
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The Square
KIM Bosol 2025 1:13:00 2D ComputerIsak Borg, first secretary of the Swedish Embassy in Pyongyang. Even though he's a diplomat, he is secretly dating Bok-joo, a local traffic officer. One day, after a shady man is seen at their secret meeting spot, Bok-joo goes missing. With his departure date approaching, Borg searches for Bok-joo and begins to get suspicious of his interpreter, LEE Myeong-jun.