Korean Cinema

[Anchor Lead]

The Korean Film Festival in Paris marks its 13th year in promoting Korean films in the French capital. The festival sees an increasing number of spectators every year and half of the festival organizing staff are French people who volunteer out of their love for Korean cinema.

[Pkg]

A long line stretches along Champ Elysee in Paris. These people have come to the 13th Korean Film Festival in Parks, the only Korean film festival held in France.

[Soundbite] (French spectator) : "I'm going to see "Little Forest." I like Kim Tae-ri from Director Park Chan-wook's "The Handmaiden.""

Sixty-three Korean movies will be screened during the week-long event. A French man introducing the opening film "The Great Battle" stands out. David is a senior programmer. He is an ordinary office worker during the day, but has been at the helm of the festival for six years now. He became fascinated by Korean cinema at a film festival 15 years ago. Every year he spends his own money to travel to various international film festivals to find movies to screen. He's doing all this just because he loves Korean films.

[Soundbite] David Treduler(Programmer, Korean Film Festival in Paris) : "The French know only of crime movies or Hong Sang-soo films. The festival aims to show the wide spectrum of Korean movies."

The festival started out with only five Korean employees in 2006, but now the staff grew to roughly 40. Due to tight budget they work for free, but more than half of the staff are French. About 85% of the spectators coming to the Korean Film Festival in Paris are French. Riding the wave of Korean movies sweeping France, the festival organizers expect to see about 16,000 people at this year's event.