"The fraternity house was hell. It was a lawless place where violence and sexual assault were routine. I was beaten all day long for no reason, until the guy who beat me was tired. They would grab me by the hair and punch me all over my body, and I lost most of my teeth to dental implants and had to have surgery for nerve damage in my neck. I still remember the horror of the beating and the howling screams of the people."

Ji Gul-hoon, 60, CEO of Handul Korea Holdings, who was forcibly detained at the Brothers' Welfare Center in 1975, recalls the incident.

The "Brothers' Welfare Center" incident, considered one of the tragedies of modern Korean history, will be made into a movie.

The Brothers' Welfare Center was a welfare facility operated in Busan by the Ministry of Interior's Decree No. 410, enacted in 1975.

For 12 years, more than 70,000 people were subjected to widespread human rights violations before the facility was shut down in March 1987, at the end of the Chun Doo-hwan regime.

Sane people were kidnapped and forced to work there, children and women were used as sex slaves, and 513 people lost their lives due to poor dietary conditions and assaults.

But the prosecution of Park In-geun, the former director of the facility, was limited to special confinement and embezzlement.

Kim Yong-won, a former prosecutor who was in charge of the Brotherhood Support case, now a lawyer at Hanbyul Law Firm, wrote in a book published in 1993 that there was considerable pressure from the top not to investigate the case.

Park was charged with six crimes, including violation of the Act on Aggravated Punishment of Certain Economic Crimes, and was sentenced to 15 years in prison, but his sentence was repeatedly lightened over the course of seven trials.

In the end, he was sentenced to two and a half years in prison for "business embezzlement."

The victims have not been compensated for the serious human rights violations and are suffering from various illnesses, trauma, and depression as a result of the beatings and sexual assaults. It's been more than 30 years, but the case is still "ongoing."

We met with Ji Gul-hoon, CEO of Handul Korea Holdings, who said he wanted to make a movie about the Brothers' Bokuji-won case to show the horrific reality and restore the honor of the victims.

▲ What happened at Brothers' Bokuji-won:

"I remember the scene where the beaters were lined up in a line. When they got tired of beating, the next person would beat them again. You had to close your eyes while the person in front of you was being beaten and wait for your turn. It's hard to describe the horror of the 'puck-puck' sound of the blows mixed with the screams. It was there that I learned that humans are capable of making animal-like howls. The assaults and beatings were better. When children between nine and twelve years old came, they would tie them up and sexually assault them, male or female. The same was true for women. In Auschwitz, people were taken to the gas chambers and killed, whereas in the Brothers' Home, there was no freedom from suffering, no freedom from death."

▲ I was told that the confirmed death toll between 1975 and 1986 was 513. I expect it to be more than 1,000. Most were starved to death or beaten to death. Of those who were alive, none of them were physically able to survive the merciless violence. Rotten and spoiled food was given to those who were not among the first few to be served. If they couldn't swallow the disgusting rice and side dishes, they would force their mouths open and shove anything worse than garbage down their throats. There were no bugs or mice in the Brothers' Home. The hungry children ate even that."

▲ Given the horrific events you experienced, how did you decide to make a movie about it? With the help of my brother, I escaped after two or three months and tried to report to the media and tell the truth, but no one would listen to me at the time, and what happened to me is still fresh in my mind 30 years later. So what about those who were there for 10 years or more? The damage is so severe that they can't function in society. Just as the movie Crucible was able to draw attention to the protection of human rights for people with disabilities, I want to dramatize the Brothers' Home case to reveal the truth and restore the honor of the victims who were stigmatized as 'from the Brothers' Home."

▲ How are the victims living:

"Many of them are in psychiatric hospitals because of the trauma. Some of them have been left with intellectual disabilities as a result of the assaults, while others are still suffering from various illnesses, depression, interpersonal fears, and alcoholism. They were treated as criminals and bums because they were from a fraternity and had to endure the coldest treatment from society. I hope they can find comfort in their lives through the movie."

▲ At the time, it was known as a 'vagrant detention center,' how did you end up there? At the Brothers' Welfare Center, subsidies were provided by the government whenever the capacity of the center increased, so children as young as 9 to 12 years old, university students, monks, and others were taken in. It was impossible to leave unless a family member came to look for them."

▲ Even after the case became public, Park In-geun, the former director of the Brothers' Welfare Center, was never properly punished."

"I want to explore that in detail in the film. He caused the deaths of 513 people over 12 years, which is worse than a rare killer. A few years ago, Park developed dementia, and there was no way to get an apology."

On March 25 of last year, the "Act on Investigating the Truth of the Brotherhood Welfare Support Incident and Supporting Victims' Livelihoods" was introduced in the National Assembly.

The bill would have established a truth commission to verify the facts of the incident and provide compensation, medical support, and livelihood support to the victims.

▲ A special law to establish the truth and provide relief to victims has yet to be passed."

"The statute of limitations has already expired, so criminal punishment is not possible, but I hope that we can reveal everything about the case and help the victims who have difficulties in their social lives due to human rights violations at the welfare center. I wait for the day when the special law, which is not receiving attention due to the civil welfare bills and urgent issues, is passed through the movie."

▲ How far along is the screenplay:

"The synopsis and screenplay are based on the victims' testimonies and first-hand experiences. We are in the process of casting actors, and we plan to start filming this summer and release the movie by next fall. Director Kim Dan-woo, who made the Dokdo movie 'Dokdo Sea Dog,' will be behind the megaphone."

▲ Do you think the movie will do well at the box office:

"There is no doubt that it will do well at the box office. It's a movie that's made to show the wrong side of history and to make sure it doesn't happen again. The distributors have also responded positively to the screenplay. Part of the profits from the movie will go to the victims of the brotherhood."