Tribeca 2025 Review: THE SQUARE, Illicit Romance in North Korea Gets Animated

The debut feature from Kim Bo-sol, The Square takes place in modern-day North Korea. Using a spare animation style that leans heavily on rotoscoping, Kim sets up a doomed romance that unfolds over a largely wintry landscape.

Isak Borg works in the Swedish embassy in Pyongyang. Tall and blond, he stands out in crowds. In the country's tense political atmosphere, Borg's efforts to break through to the people of Pyongyang are rebuffed. Even Borg's handler and translator Myeong-jun refuses to open up to him. "We're destined to be lonely," the ambassador tells him over a game of chess late one night.

Borg is drawn to Bok-joo, a trainee who is a part-time traffic cop. Their nodding acquaintance blossoms to clandestine meetings under deserted bridges at night. Myeong-jun sees their growing relationship, but for the moment doesn't tell his superior.

When it becomes clear that Borg will be transferred away from Pyongyang, he tries to convince Bok-joo to come with him to Sweden. Kim Bo-sol's script reveals that Borg's grandmother fled North Korea many years earlier.

Borg's actions have drastic consequences. Bok-joo, Myeong-jun, and even the ambassador come under suspicion. When Bok-joo is transferred from her traffic position, Borg breaks every embassy rule to try to find her.

Kim Bo-sol accomplishes a lot with a clearly minimal budget. The rotoscoping can be awkward, especially as characters walk to or from the camera. The production design is filled with peculiar choices, like a dart board inches from the ceiling in Borg's apartment. Kim's muted palette drains energy from the film.

The biggest drawback to The Square is its point of view. Borg is the least interesting character to tell this story. His sense of privilege, his inability to see how he is placing the people he ostensibly cares for in danger, is annoying. The film would be considerably more involving told from Bok-joo's or Myeong-jun's perspective.

Borg's cluelessness serves to emphasize the script's other odd touches. At one point he throws an egg across a courtyard into Myeong-jun's apartment in an adjacent building. Somehow the egg manages to break Myeong-jun's window. Even weirder, the egg doesn't crack, even though it's raw, as Myeong-jun discovers later.

Kim's empathy for his imaginary North Korea is commendable, but not as daring as that in a film like Escape or a television series like Crash Landing on You. But he shows the skills to make a better sophomore feature.

The film enjoyed its North American premiere at Tribeca Festival 2025. Visit its official festival page for more information.