The film follows the 2023 raid by the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office on investigative outlet Newstapa. Director Kim Yongjin, its former head, traces a pattern of political prosecutions against critical journalists—from reports on Yoon Suk-yeol to Cho Kuk and Kim Keon-hee. Combining on-site footage, journalist testimonies, and legal records, the film reveals how special funds were used to pressure the media, silence dissent, and manipulate public opinion. It is a powerful reminder of the ongoing struggle to protect press freedom and democratic values in South Korea.

* Each Critics’ Choice screening will be followed by a Critics’ Talk—a one-on-one conversation between the director and a critic. 

* Note: This talk will be conducted in Korean without interpretation.​ 

Search and Seizure: The Rise of an Insurrection unfolds in the shadow of the illegal martial law declared on December 3, 2024—a moment that forces a closer look at how film engages with the world it records. 

Directed by Kim Yongjin and produced by Newstapa, the documentary draws a direct line from the confirmation hearings of then–prosecutor general nominee Yoon Seokyeol to the proclamation of martial law, charting the concrete lies and unlawful acts along the way. As the ruling bloc’s actions come into sharper focus, so too does the mounting pressure on Newstapa: raids, prosecutorial investigations, and court battles. Compressing this long struggle into a taut political chronicle, the film inevitably places Newstapa’s own journalists in front of the lens. Here, the camera becomes an active participant—an on-site witness during search-and-seizure operations—yet maintains remarkable composure, resisting sensational framing or agitation. For much of its first half, the film holds to the patient rhythms of listening and observing. In the later passages, it borrows sparingly from the tropes of genre cinema to retrace what it calls “the rise of an insurrection.” 

Beyond the immediate political story, it also becomes a timely case study in the current media landscape: the overlap between news reports and documentary features, the patterns of production and consumption across theatrical release and online distribution, and the precarious conditions under which investigative journalism now fights to survive.

This investigative report exposes the full story behind the raid on Newstapa by the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office’s Anti-Corruption Division. Documenting the abuses of the Yoon Sukyeol prosecutorial regime from the ground up, the film details its lawlessness, anti-democratic impulses, and distortion of history. It makes the urgent case that in the wake of Yoon’s illegal declaration of martial law and subsequent removal from office, the most essential tasks for rebuilding the republic are radical prosecutorial and media reform.

• Producer장광연 JANG Kwangyun