It used to be that North Korean characters in South Korean films were little more than stock villains, cardboard cutouts that served the anti-communist narrative pushed during the Cold War.

But rapid changes in the film industry and the evolution of inter-Korean relations in recent decades have had a dramatic impact on the way that films depict the DPRK and defectors, giving rise to more three-dimensional characters and sophisticated storytelling.

The 1990s and 2000s in particular saw an influx of financing, while producers and directors were also given greater autonomy to experiment with different genres. This enabled South Korean filmmakers