Films: Heart of Snow: Afterlife + Three Borders + Q&A

In collaboration with Misha Zakharov, a PhD candidate at the University of Warwick and curator at Screening Rights Film Festival, and Goethe-Institut UK, we are hosting a special event on Koryo-saram (or Koryoin), the (post-)Soviet Koreans.

In 1937, Koryo-saram were forcibly displaced from the Far East of the Russian SFSR to Central Asia as part of a secret racist operation launched by Stalin’s government, which was rearranging multiple populations and indigenous peoples due to perceived “anti-Soviet activities”. Over a century of their existence, Koryo-saram have developed their own cuisine, literature, fashion, music, and cinema, although their history and culture remain a hidden narrative, known primarily to experts in Central Asian or Korean studies.

The event will include a screening of two films:

• Heart of Snow: Afterlife (2018), Kim Soyoung’s short about how Koryoin came to be (17 mins)
• Three Borders (2017), Alisa Berger’s film essay about her Jewish-Korean intricate family history (55 mins)

The films will be followed by an after-screening panel on the intersectional diasporic experience of Koryo-saram, featuring Koryoin creatives and advocates from Central Asia and the diaspora, and a listening event featuring the new album by Ostinato Records, titled Synthesizing the Silk Roads: Uzbek Disco, Tajik Folktronica, Uyghur Rock, and Tatar Jazz from 1980s Soviet Central Asia.

Host or Publisher Migration Collective