The Seoul Guardians

NETPAC Award Special Mention, 2026 International Film Festival Rotterdam
Audience Award for Best Documentary, 2026 Fantasia International FIlm Festival
Best Social Impact Documentary, 2026 Hot Docs Festival

With the adrenaline of a high-stakes action film, THE SEOUL GUARDIANS drops us in the electric center of thousands of shoving, climbing, screaming, crying bodies in December 2024–the most shocking six hours in modern Korean history–when the South Korean president declared martial law in the dead of night and a clock ticked down on democracy.

The images are jawdropping: politicians, one after another, hurling themselves over a wall, lifted on shoulders or snuck past police to physically enter the National Assembly and place the most important vote of their lives. Inside the building, staffers and media coordinate impromptu formations, converting sofas into barricades to slow down military battering rams and smoke bombs. As a swarm of teenagers, elders, journalists, YouTubers, lawmakers, and aides spontaneously converge to somehow stop helicopters and armored vehicles, three MBC journalists document the mayhem and mobilization of that frenzied tinderbox night, when one missed moment or one errant spark could utterly change the course of Korean society.

– Christina Ree

Preceded By

Green or Yellow

Directed by Wang Hee Song

On the run, Dong-gu’s family practices distinguishing soldiers in order to survive.