Village versus Empire (2016) is set on Jeju Island, off the coast of the Korean Peninsula – one of the ‘Seven Wonders of Nature’, and known as The Island of Stone, Peace Island and a Woman’s Island – a place of beauty and wonder, with more UNESCO Natural Heritage Sites than any single geographic location on planet earth.

But, there is trouble in this paradise. It is being transformed – militarised. Its fragile ecology and ancient shamanistic traditions are currently being devastated by the construction of a US naval base that is perceived by the islanders as a globally dangerous provocation which imperils the island’s future and masks its troubled history. Village vs Empire dramatizes the threat to island life and nature, through the performances of an artist, Dohee Lee, born on the island and deeply troubled by its transformation, the activists who contest its occupation, the residents who have lived through its changes and the archive through which its traumatic past is uncovered.