Tiger Spirit

Korea is a divided nation. The psychic scar shared by families divided during the Korean War in the 1950s is symbolized by the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) dividing communist North from capitalist South. Along this infamous border, filmmaker Min Sook Lee begins a revelatory, emotion-charged journey into Korea’s broken heart, exploring the rhetoric and realism of reunification through the extraordinary stories of ordinary people. Lee joins one man’s quest to prove the tiger, a symbol of resilience in Korean mythology, still lives in the DMZ. But Lee delives deeper than symbols, asking the crucial question—how will the two Koreas be put back together? In the South, we meet elderly Koreans waiting for news of relatives and young defectors haunted by memories of escape. In the North, we visit an inter-Korean economic project and gain unprecedented access to a state-sanctioned family reunion. An eloquent tale of longing and hope, Tiger Spirit is an unforgettable portrait of Korea at a crossroads