Unperson - Exhibition at Peyonchang Peace Film Festival | Tim Franco

The short film “ Reclaiming the negative” documenting Tim Franco's projectUnpersonis part of the official selection of the 2021 Pyeonchang Peace film Festival. The photos from the book are also exhibited as part of the festival.

In George Orwell’s 1984, an unperson is someone who has been vaporized, whose record has been erased. Similarly, the North Korean defectors that Tim Franco chose to portray have decided to disappear, fleeing sometimes for ideological reasons and often out of despair. The road to South Korea is dangerous and can take years, across the many different borders with Mongolia, Laos, Thailand and China. The travels of the ones that do are filled with the fear of being arrested and sent back to labor camps. Having arrived in South Korea, they often struggle to find a new identity; Lost between their North Korean past and South Korean future