Scene from "Tristes Tropiques" (Etrange Film Festival's official Facebook page)

By Charles Audouin

The action thriller "Tristes Tropiques" (Sad Tropics) has won the Nouveau Genre Grand Prize, the top honor in the international competition section of this year's Etrange Film Festival of France, the movie's overseas distributor Finecut announced on Sept. 16.

Directed by Park Hoon-jung, the work depicts children belonging to an assassin group raised by Sabu, the absolute ruler of a tropical rainforest. They begin to suspect one another after an incident and vow revenge.

Marc Troonen, the festival's programmer, praised "Tristes Tropiques" as "an action thriller that builds in intensity like an opera, racing relentlessly toward a furious climax as if there were no tomorrow" and "a high-speed action ride that leaves no time to blink and never slows down."

The film was previously invited last year's Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival of Spain. In April, it snagged the Silver Raven in the international competition section of the Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival.

Park's previous works include "New World (2013)," "The Witch: Part 1 - The Subversion (2018)" and "Night in Paradise (2021)."

Held every September in Paris since 1993, the Etrange festival spotlights the horror, fantasy, science fiction and thriller genres and has invited Korean films such as "Exhuma," "Concrete Utopia" and "The Spy Gone North."

This year's edition from Sept. 1-12 screened 68 films including Na Hong-jin's sci-fi epic "Hope."

caudouin@korea.kr