Korean director O Muel tackles a dark period in his country’s history with “Jiseul”, which focuses on an incident during the Jeju Uprising in which the inhabitants of a small village on the island were massacred. A Jeju native himself, O Muel crowd-funded the indie film’s Us$190,000 budget, which went on to win great critical acclaim, being the first Korean production to win the World Cinema Dramatic Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival. As well as picking up awards at several other festivals, the film also proved popular at the domestic box office, emerging as the biggest indie hit in years. The film takes place in March 1947, when the Us government in Korea issued an order stating that all civilians living within five kilometres of the coastline on Jeju Island were to be considered communists and shot on sight. Seen as a part of the Us...