Busan 2025

Busan 2025 Busan 2025: The Verdict

Busan 2025: The Verdict

Amid widespread concern over the health of the Korean film industry, the Busan International Film Festival celebrated its 30th edition hosting domestic films – and audiences – marked by their variety and vitality.

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Malika still Malika

Malika

Natalia Uvarova’s ‘Malika’ is a levelheaded examination of a mother and daughter relationship on the verge of a new marriage.

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Gloaming in Luomu c Chengdu Lu Films 1 Busan 2025: The Awards

Busan 2025: The Awards

In ‘Gloaming in Luomu’, Korean-Chinese filmmaker Zhang Lu offers his most radical reworking of the theme of searching for a long-vanished soulmate, in a film that unfolds like a delirious dream.

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Kok Kok Kokoook c Maharshi Tuhin Kashyap Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute Kok Kok Kokoook

Kok Kok Kokoook

Scathing social commentary meets brash body horror in the unclassifiable and utterly compelling ‘Kok Kok Kokoook’, Maharshi Tuhin Kashyap’s first feature.

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Still from Maze (2025)

Maze

Grief is the thing in Maze, Shin Sun’s subdued drama about a trio of people processing loss. An understated but absorbing meditation on guilt and recrimination.

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Indira Tiwari in Spying Stars (c) House on Fire, Eleeanora Images

Spying Stars

Sri Lankan cineaste Vimukthi Jayasundara re-emerges from his decade-long feature-filmmaking hiatus with ‘Spying Stars’, a moving story about death and mourning packaged as an audacious sci-fi fantasy.

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By Another Name c Mareummo Film By Another Name

By Another Name

A dying filmmaker struggles to bring one final project to fruition and his wife attempts to realise this last wish in “By Another Name”, Korean indie filmmaker Lee Jea-han’s uneventful entry to Busan’s new competition.
 

A dying filmmaker struggles to bring one final project to fruition and his wife attempts to realise this last wish in “By Another Name”, Korean indie filmmaker Lee Jea-han’s plain and uneventful entry to Busan International Film Festival’s newly minted main competition.

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Gaumaya Gurung in Shape of Momo

Shape of Momo

Indian filmmaker Tribeny Rai makes back-to-back festival bows at Busan and San Sebastian with ‘Shape of Momo’, a thoughtful family drama about an affluent, cosmopolitan woman’s rebellion against the gender- and class-based schisms in her picturesque Himalayan hometown.

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Without Permission 2 c Hassan Nazer Without Permission

Without Permission

A sense of déja vu permeates the Busan competition entry ‘Without Permission’, British-Iranian Hassan Nazer’s awkwardly dated tribute to the subversive spirit of Iran’s filmmakers.

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Kurak 2 c OYMO Studio Kurak

Kurak

Completing the work of her late partner Emial Atageldiev, screenwriter-turned-helmer Erke Dzhumakmatova bows at Busan with ‘Kurak’, a relentlessly brutal exposé of the entrenched, violent oppression of women in Kygryzstan.

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Funky Freaky Freaks still

Funky Freaky Freaks

‘Funky Freaky Freaks’ puts troubled Korean youth on the big screen in a manner that advertises director Han Chang-lok’s eye for fine performances and unusual visuals.

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The Mutation c June Film The Mutation

The Mutation

Korean cineaste Shin Su-won’s first feature in three years, ‘The Mutation’ is a lyrical and heartfelt odd-couple road movie about bereavement, bigotry and self-belief.

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Soma-Fujii-right-and-Yukino-Murakami-in-Leave-the-Cat-Alone-c-2025-Leave-the-Cat-Alone-film-partners.j

Leave the Cat Alone

With his first feature ‘Leave the Cat Alone’ competing in Busan, Japanese filmmaker Daisuke Shigaya offers a sensitive and subdued exploration into the loves and hopes of some artistic millennials.

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Still from En Route To (2025)

En Route To

Yoo Jaein’s graduation film, ‘En Route To’, is both a clear-eyed drama about teenage pregnancy and a humorous, touching tale of female friendship.

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Another Birth c IZK Films 2 Another Birth

Another Birth

New York-based Tajik-American filmmaker Isabelle Kalandar bows in competition at Busan with ‘Another Birth’, a mesmerising rite-of-passage drama bolstered by poetry, picturesque landscapes and a powerful turn from its child actor.

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Bakas Identity c BAKAs Identity Film Partners Baka’s Identity

Baka’s Identity

Koto Nagata’s surprisingly subtle and melancholy suspense thriller ‘Baka’s Identity’ about three Japanese scammers vaunts nuanced performances but gets derailed by flashbacks.

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