The Journals of Musan

Park Jung-bum writes, directs and stars in this spellbinding, deeply affecting story, about a North Korean defector trying to eke out a living in Seoul. The character’s bowl-shaped haircut and perpetually downcast gaze initially establish him as a negligible sad sack. But Park, like his mentor Lee Chang-dong (Poetry), slowly peels back the layers of the man—and the harsh society he inhabits—to profoundly devastating effect.