Koryo Saram - The Unreliable People
documentary film, 2007, 60 min
co-directed by Y. David Chung and Matt Dibble, Executive Producer Meredith Woo, Historical Consultant German Kim
original music by Jin Hi Kim and Pooh Johnston

Winner of the National Film Board of Canada's Best Documentary Award - 2007 Toronto Reel Asian
Official Selection - Sao Paolo International Film Festival
Official Selection - San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival

click to enter the film's website: koryosaram.net

In 1937, Josef Stalin began a campaign of massive ethnic cleansing, forcibly deporting everyone of Korean origin in Far East Russia to the steppe country of Central Asia, 3700 miles away. Y. David Chung and Matt Dibble’s documentary charts the extraordinary untold history of the Koryo Saram (the Soviet Korean phrase for Korean person), dubbed “The Unreliable People” by Stalin. Through never-before-seen historical footage and emotional personal accounts from the original Koryo Saram, a lost history is pieced together, one that survived Stalin’s mandate to eradicate the Korean language and tradition. In Kazakh, Korean and Russian, the film asks questions that all immigrants can relate to: how to hold onto one’s traditions, and how to save one’s culture from being overwhelmed.

In this scene, deportation survivors Dekabrina Kim, Vladminir Tyan, Mikhail Kim and Sergei Yun describe their experiences in 1937.
4.5 min.