‘Smugglers’ to compete in Spain’s Sitges Film Festival

The Korean crime action thriller “Smugglers” has been invited to the competition category of this year’s Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival in Spain, the movie’s local distributor said Wednesday.

The new feature from director Ryoo Seung-wan will be shown in the Orbita section for introducing the most notable films of the year, alongside another Korean film “Concrete Utopia,” NEW said.

Sitges, one of the world’s largest genre film festivals, is set to run from Oct. 5-15 in the resort city of Sitges, located 35 kilometers southwest of Barcelona.

Set in the 1970s in a peaceful seaside village, “Smugglers” revolves around two female divers, played by Kim Hye-soo and Yum Jung-ah, who unexpectedly get tangled up in a high-stakes smuggling scheme.

Angel Sala, the executive director of the festival, praised the film as a fun and touching action film full of unexpected heroines.

The movie was previously invited to the 48th Toronto International Film Festival set to open in September and the 76th Locarno Film Festival that kicked off a week ago for an 11-day run.

It has topped the local box office since its release on July 26, with its audience tally expected to surpass 4 million soon.