10th Korean Refugee Film Festival returns with focus on refugee-led storytelling

A poster for the 2026 Korea Refugee Film Festival / United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Korea

After a year's absence, the anticipated 10th edition of the Korea Refugee Film Festival (KOREFF) is back with four major films made in Korea and Europe. The festival, founded in 2015 to bring refugee stories to the Korean public through cinema, is also part of the 75th anniversary of the 1951 Refugee Convention this year.

This year's festival will feature two film premieres: “Allies in Exile” by Syrian refugee filmmaker Hasan Kattan, and “A Lighter Between Invisible Bars” by Liam Han, a refugee from Myanmar living in Korea. The program is rounded out by two European productions, “Green Border” (2023) by Agnieszka Holland, and “Souleymane's Story” (2024) by Boris Lojkine.

“A Lighter Between Invisible Bars” by Liam Han will premiere at the Korea Refugee Film Festival. Courtesy of Liam Han

Over the past decade, the festival has provided a platform for filmmakers, activists, refugees and members of the public to explore the realities of forced displacement through culture and storytelling.

Stefan Maier, deputy representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Korea, said the festival’s central theme this year is “Festival of Refugees,” or the idea that refugees should be able to tell their own stories through artistic and cultural expression, and it will screen films that explore displacement, asylum, identity and resilience from diverse perspectives.

“Several of the featured works are created by filmmakers with direct refugee backgrounds, reinforcing the festival's goal of ensuring refugees are not merely subjects of storytelling but storytellers themselves,” he told The Korea Times.

For Maier, who arrived in Seoul last year after nearly two decades of UNHCR assignments across Africa, Europe and the Middle East, the festival represents an important opportunity to challenge misconceptions surrounding refugees.

“We see a lot of misperceptions, a lot of hate speech and negative discourse around refugee issues,” he said. “The idea is to have refugees tell their own stories and be self-represented, rather than being viewed only as subjects of policy discussions or recipients of humanitarian assistance.”

The festival comes at a time when global displacement remains at elevated levels.

According to UNHCR’s latest Global Trends Report, released ahead of World Refugee Day on June 20, the number of refugees worldwide has declined for the first time in a decade.

According to the report, 5.4 million people escaped violence and persecution in 2025 by fleeing to other countries, but returns are also gathering pace: 14.7 million displaced —including 4.4 million refugees and 10.3 million internally displaced people — returned to their areas or countries of origin in 2025, with sharp increases in Afghanistan, Sudan and Syria. Refugee returns were the second-highest since records began 60 years ago, though many occurred under pressure and to precarious conditions at home.

Maier cautioned against interpreting the figures as a sign that the global refugee crisis is easing.

“Most concerning is that 7 out of 10 refugees remain trapped in what UNHCR calls 'protracted displacement,' living in exile for more than five years, often with limited prospects for rebuilding their lives,” he said. “KOREFF aims to present the human stories behind those figures. Statistics and policy documents are important, but it is another thing entirely to see people’s experiences on screen.”

This year's festival, jointly organized by UNHCR and Advocates for Public Interest Law (APIL), a nonprofit legal advocacy organization, with additional support from Uniqlo Korea, seeks to move beyond statistics and policy debates by highlighting the personal experiences, aspirations and resilience of refugees.

Kim Hee-jin, an attorney with APIL, said the festival was created to improve the public understanding of refugees and asylum seekers living in Korea.

“We want refugees to be considered as people themselves, not simply as a refugee issue; we want to deliver the stories behind them,” she said.

APIL, which provides legal representation and advice to refugees, asylum seekers, immigration detainees and individuals seeking protection at Incheon International Airport, has been involved with KOREFF since its inception.

Kim hopes viewers will gain a deeper understanding of why refugees leave their countries and the challenges they face rebuilding their lives in unfamiliar societies.

“What we feel while working in this field is that when one Korean citizen meets one refugee in person, everything is usually fine,” she said. “But when it comes to the refugee issue as a group, there is often much more hostility. When people get to know the stories of individual refugees and understand why they had no choice but to flee their home countries, they may better understand what is happening in their lives.”

According to Kim, the festival nearly did not take place this year. Organizers had decided against holding the event due to the extensive planning required to secure the films and develop a program. However, Uniqlo Korea approached the organizers after learning of a collection of films supported through the Displacement Film Fund (DFF), an international initiative that funds filmmakers with refugee backgrounds, initiated by actor and producer Cate Blanchett, who is also a goodwill ambassador for the UNHCR.

“At first, we told them we had no plans to hold the festival this year,” Kim said. “But they already had films available, which meant we didn't need to start from scratch.”

Uniqlo participated as a founding partner of the DFF in 2025 to support filmmakers who continue their creative work despite being forcibly displaced due to conflict or persecution, as well as those who authentically portray the experiences of refugees and forced displacement.

Uniqlo Korea Sustainability Team Leader Hong Jeong-woo said that the Japan-headquartered company has consistently supported various refugee initiatives.

“Uniqlo Korea is a long-standing sponsor of the Korea Refugee Film Festival, and it is especially meaningful that the Displacement Fund Film-supported films backed by Uniqlo will be screened at the festival this year.”

KOREFF kicks off June 17 at Art House Momo, located on the Ewha Womans University campus in western Seoul. Visit koreff.kr for more information.

Bereket Alemayehu is an Ethiopian photo artist, social activist and writer based in Seoul. He’s also the co-founder of Hanokers, a refugee-led social initiative, and a freelance contributor for Pressenza Press Agency.