Director: Kim Hee-jin
A quiet Belgian winter becomes the backdrop for a story about starting over with nothing but a stolen identity and a desperate hope. "My Name Is Loh Kiwan" (2024) follows a North Korean defector who has crossed borders and oceans only to find that survival in a new country asks just as much of him as escape did.
What is My Name Is Loh Kiwan about?
Loh Kiwan has fled North Korea and is trying to build a case for refugee status in Belgium, a place where he knows no one and speaks none of the language. Cut off from paperwork, money, and the identity he once had, he takes on odd routines just to stay fed and housed while immigration officials weigh his fate. Into this isolation comes Marie, a woman carrying her own grief and disappointments, who begins crossing paths with him in small, unplanned ways. Their connection develops slowly, shaped less by romance-novel timing than by two people recognizing exhaustion in each other. As Kiwan's case moves through a system that treats his story with suspicion, the film tracks how displacement reshapes a person's sense of home, trust, and self-worth.
Cast & crew
Song Joong-ki plays Loh Kiwan with a controlled, watchful physicality, letting silence carry as much of the character's history as dialogue does. Choi Sung-eun's Marie avoids easy sympathy, giving the role a prickliness that keeps the central relationship from feeling pre-packaged. Director Kim Hee-jin surrounds them with a supporting cast, including Waël Sersoub and Jo Han-chul, who fill out the bureaucratic and everyday world Kiwan has to navigate.
Context & significance
The film is adapted from a Korean novel and sets its refugee narrative specifically in Belgium rather than a more commonly depicted resettlement country, which shifts the texture of its bureaucracy scenes and street-level detail. Kim Hee-jin directs with an eye for cold, functional spaces, letting the setting itself communicate the character's alienation.
Where & how to watch
"My Name Is Loh Kiwan" is available to watch on K-Time with a free account login. The platform's Farsi-language interface makes it easy for Persian-speaking viewers to browse and queue up the film alongside subtitle or dub options where available.