To the Land of Happiness by Im Sang-soo will open the 26th Busan International Film Festival which will take place from October 6th – 15th, 2021 in Busan, Korea.

After been selected for the Official Selection of the 2020 Cannes Film Festival, the new featured by Im Sang-soo will open activities for the 26th Busan International Film Festival, one of Asia’s best festivals. Last year the Busan run online due to the Covid-19 outbreak, this year organizers are trying to push for an on-site presentation.

Heaven: To the Land of Happiness is a festive and pastoral road movie in which two men – “Inmate 203” (Choi Min-sik), who escaped from jail, and “Nam-sik” (Park Hae-il), who coincidentally joins 203’s trip – get their hands on a large amount of money by chance and embark on a journey together, dreaming of a luxurious ending to their lives. The harmony created from Im Sang-soo’s outstanding directorial power and excellent acting by Choi Min-sik and Park Hae-il ultimately turns the film into an inquiry about happiness that is warm and beautiful like no other. (BusanIFF 2021)

About the director:
After making a memorable debut with the film Girls’ Night Out (1998), Im Sang-soo solidified his position as a director representing Korea through topical works that get to the heart of Korean society, including: A Good Lawyer’s Wife (2003), The President’s Last Bang (2005), The Housemaid (2010), and Intimate Enemies (2015). Following his foray into the Cannes Film Festival Competition Section in 2010 with the film The Housemaid (2010), which is a remake of the eponymous 1960 film by director Kim Ki-young, Im was invited to the Cannes Film Festival competition section in 2012 with The Taste of Money and was selected for the Cannes Official Selection 2020 with Heaven: To the Land of Happiness, a film invited to the Busan International Film Festival to be the opening film.

For more information about the festival please go to: https://www.biff.kr/eng