The Square

In the depths of a North Korean winter, a Swedish diplomat’s secret lover disappears. Can he find out what happened to her before it’s too late?

Isak, a diplomat coming to the end of a stint working in the Swedish Embassy in Pyongyang, lives a more privileged life than most in North Korea. He also finds himself under constant surveillance, which means that there’s no way a budding romance with local traffic officer Bok-joo is going to proceed unnoticed. When Bok-joo mysteriously disappears, Isak seeks the help of his interpreter, Myeong-jun, to locate her. But as the desperate search progresses, the diplomat is gripped by a growing paranoia.

Screening to acclaim at Tribeca and Annecy, South Korean animator Kim Bo-sol’s The Square is a lovelorn thriller set amid the snowy surrounds and palpable anxiety of Pyongyang in winter. Using realist animation to render life behind a modern Iron Curtain, this quietly profound portrait of life and love in a surveillance state – reminiscent of wiretapping classics such as The Conversation (MIFF 1974) and The Lives of Others – captures the humanity that endures within an inhumane regime.

“A striking achievement in animation … The oppressive setting lends the story a tense, thriller-like quality.” – Asian Movie Puls