Life Beyond the Border: Film & Stories of Escape from North Korea

Eun Do Hur is a film producer and distributor who has introduced acclaimed art films such as Girl with a Pearl Earring (2004), Still Life (2014), and Waltz with Bashir (2008) to Korean audiences. He produced A Between Days (2007) and Treeless Mountain (2009), and has served as Director of the Seoul International Youth Film Festival (SIYFF) and Program Director of the Seoul Larkspur International Film Festival (SLIFF). As CEO of With Cinema and former head of Myungbo Art Cinema, he continues to play a leading role in Korea’s independent film scene.

Yoonhee Kim began her filmmaking career in 2019, working on the DI for the North Korean human rights film The Rainy Season. She made her directorial debut in 2021 with the feature film Bani. Influenced by her grandmother from Pyongyang and her grandfather, a former South Korean soldier, she has focused her creative work on North Korean human rights issues. From 2022 to 2024, she contributed to a trilogy of North Korean human rights films, serving as producer of You Don’t Know, screenwriter of The Discovery of Happiness, and director of Arari, Age Eleven. The trilogy was invited to film festivals in South Korea and abroad, receiving awards and recognition. As of 2025, Kim continues to dedicate her work to films addressing North Korean human rights, using cinema as a powerful medium to give voice to these urgent issues.

Jinhyuk Li was born in North Korea and escaped in 2012 after Kim Jong-un came to power. As a member of North Korea’s MZ generation, he was influenced by outside video content during his time in the country. He lost his relatives to the North Korean authorities in a single day and still does not know the circumstances of their lives or deaths. Having experienced escape from a totalitarian regime, he has developed a deep commitment to human rights, with a particular interest in national policy systems grounded in humanistic values.

Kyu Li Kim is a North Korean escapee now living in the UK and runs a catering business in New Malden. She escaped North Korea in 1997 during a period of mass killings in the country. While in China, she was trafficked to a Chinese man and forced to undergo an abortion without any medical care. She lost her younger sister in 1998, but after 23 years was able to find her again. Tragically, in 2023 her sister was repatriated to North Korea. Now, she speaks out about human rights, raising awareness of the suffering of North Korean women and families torn apart by the regime.

This event is open to the public and held in person only. We kindly ask SOAS students and staff to indicate their affiliation with SOAS on the registration form.

• Organiser: British Korean Society in collaboration with SOAS Centre of Korean Studies
• Contact email: centres@soas.ac.uk