Another North Korean film, presented for the first time in Busan with Runaway. After 5 years of imprisonment, director Shin Sang-Ok directed 7 films in the span of 2 and a half years. Salt is based on a short story by Kang Kyung-Ae, a left-wing writer of the 30′s. Actress Choi Eun-Hee plays the role of a mother that endures poverty and fate, but ultimately awakens to Marxist ideology. The family works as sharecroppers in Gando area of Manchuria during Japanese imperialism. After an attack by the communists, the father is killed. The wife tries hard to keep the family from falling apart. After losing everything she has, she crosses the border to smuggle salt, banned by the Japanese imperialists. Unlike many of the propaganda films of North Korea, Salt does not put ideology in the forefront of the film. Rather, the focus is on the tragic life of the woman, as played by Choi Eun-Hee. In fact, the communists seldom appear in the film. In this respect, Salt resembles Runaway -- although following the basic structure of socialist realism, it tells a story of universal human drama. (Kwon Yong-Min)