Defectors is a personal documentary filled with the artist's courage to honestly reveal and explore their own and their family's history, accompanied by intellectual insights. Director Kim Hyunkyung, who traveled between Korea and the United States while creating this work, confronts the trauma left by the Korean War on her family. The first subjects her camera captures are her parents and their home in Korea. After the director's older sister passed away at an early age, her mother's hoarding tendencies worsened. As if trying to fill the void left by her father, who disappeared during the Korean War, and her daughter who left first, she picks up discarded items from the streets to fill the family space. Meanwhile, the director's father immerses himself in reading books about the Korean War, creating his own record of the war, and facing the past. As Kim Hyunkyung faces her parents' lives, she coincidentally follows the story of a former diplomat who defected to the United States. Leaving his family behind in North Korea, he roams between Korea, the United States, and the United Kingdom, leading an unstable life. Reflecting on her own situation of leaving family and Korea to establish a foothold in the United States, the director's efforts to understand the wounds and regrets they carry eventually turn into reflections on the pains of departing and parting ways in life. Now, 70 years after the armistice, the courage and insight that Kim Hyunkyung shows through Defectors will serve as a significant guide for those truly willing to confront the wounds of division.