In Hope Harbor, an isolated coastal village near the Demilitarized Zone, police outpost chief Bum-seok receives alarming news from the locals: a tiger has appeared. When old Mr Ko’s prized fighting bull is savagely killed and the village erupts into panic, it becomes clear that something far stranger is at large. With reinforcements diverted to battle wildfires and all communication cut off, Bum-seok and the steadfast officer Sung-ae struggle to defend a village of the elderly, while in the mountains, the restless young hunter Sung-ki and the locals who set out to track the beast find themselves hunted instead. What begins as ignorance plants the seed of disaster, escalating through human conflict into a tragedy of cosmic proportions.

Na Hong-jin’s first film in a decade, and the fourth of his features to be selected for Cannes, ‘Hope’ is a breathless fusion of science fiction, action and thriller, with unexpected flashes of humour. Shot almost entirely in daylight, across the ancient forests of Romania and the South Korean coast, it begins as a hunt for a mysterious predator, grows into a desperate struggle for survival, and finally becomes something else entirely. Spectacular and unpredictable from start to finish, it is a monumental story of how tragedy is born of misunderstanding.