Yeon Sang-ho's Paradise Lost invited to TIFF

CJ ENM said on July 21 that director Yeon Sang-ho's new film 'Paradise Lost' has been officially invited to the Special Presentations section of the 51st Toronto International Film Festival. The festival is scheduled to run from September 10 to 20 in Canada.

According to the distributor, 'Paradise Lost' will be shown at TIFF as its world premiere and is scheduled to open in South Korea in October. The Special Presentations section presents new films by international directors and other selected titles.

Lee Chang-dong's new film 'Possible Love' was also named to the same section this year. Yeon was invited to the Special Presentations section last year(2025) with 'The Ugly,' making this his TIFF selection 2 years in a row.

The distributor described 'Paradise Lost' as a thriller about what happens after Sun-woo, a son who had gone missing, returns after 9 years. So-young, who endured the loss by meeting a childhood version of her son through an artificial intelligence(AI) program, becomes anxious when she faces Sun-woo after he returns with an entirely different appearance.

The film is based on Oh Seong-eun's novel 'Black Inferno,' with the original idea by Yeon and writer Ryu Yong-jae, according to the distributor. Yeon said, 'Paradise Lost is the darkest story among the stories I have had,' and described it as 'a film about one mother's desperate struggle as she falls into a deep abyss between a child revived by AI and the real child who returns 9 years later.'

Kim Hyun-joo plays So-young, the lead character. Bae Hyeon Seong plays Sun-woo.