GVN Interview: Attila Korosi Discusses His New Feature ‘Demon Dancer (Sua/Nara)’

Demon Dancer (Sua/Nara) is a ballet revenge thriller that commands attention from the first minute. It’s an emotionally charged, intense fantasy action thriller that combines meticulous ballet movements with fight choreography, all thanks to its powerful female leads, Jiyeon Han and Anita Korosi. The film will release in US theaters in December 2026, and it is already the number one action fantasy film on digital platforms in South Korea. Geek Vibes Nation had the pleasure of interviewing the Yugoslav-born American director Attila Korosi to talk about his process, designing the demon, channeling anger for artistic authenticity, and shooting demanding action sequences without VFX.

Jaylan Salah: How did the words ballet, revenge, thriller, and demons come to your mind?

Attila Korosi: I spent a long time in South Korea, and I was introduced there to ballet. I watched a lot of ballet performances and shows. The one thing I didn’t know prior to this experience was how powerful, precise, and graceful ballerinas are. I thought that I was a strong person, but when I shook a ballerina’s hand, I felt her grip so strongly. It was mind-boggling to me. I became captivated by the art of ballet and wanted to put together an action movie using professional ballerinas.

JS: How did you cast your two protagonists, the demon, Nara, and the ballerina, Sua?

AK: I write a screenplay around the people I fall in love with. So the ballerina in the movie is played by actress Jiyeon Han, who is a professional ballerina in real life and happens to be my wife.

As for the demon, Nara, she’s played by my younger sister Anita Korosi, whom I have worked with before. There are many reasons why I made Demon Dancer, but one of them is for my wife and my sister to get along in real life. People say when you make a movie, it’s like going into war. You reveal your real character through all the harsh times and the difficulties. Both my wife and my sister are professionally trained. My wife has been trained for thirty years in a professional ballet academy, and my sister is a working actress in New York. So that was part of the genesis of this story.

More importantly, I would like to share another fact with you. Although this is an action fantasy film, its genesis is inspired by an unfortunate real-life event, and that was the sexual harassment of my wife. You have to understand that South Korean society is very homogeneous, and interracial marriages are not common.

So, I was in LA where my previous movie was premiering, while my wife stayed back for all the preparations in South Korea. However, she started experiencing a series of crazy events. Luckily, our apartment has a security camera, and we have everything documented. I got so furious after hearing what happened that I immediately flew back to South Korea. I started experiencing this firsthand with her as well. I caught the guy who was doing crazy, horrible things that you wouldn’t believe were happening in a civilized society. We reported him to the authorities. The detectives and the police came, but nothing happened, and I was so angry because I felt that it was so unjust that this would happen to us. I ended up channeling this anger and using all available resources like ballet, my sister, the interracial marriage, and creating a story about them under the lens of fantasy with demons, action scenes, and fights to make the film globally appealing.

JS: I love that you mentioned how anger was the driving force behind this film because I could feel the female rage of the characters. It is something that, as women, we all grapple with and want to express. I was surprised that a male director would understand female rage so precisely.

AK: You summarize this beautifully, and thank you for that. Rage is hard to capture accurately, unless the emotions that go into the creative work come from a deep, honest place, so that when the camera captures them, the film turns out beautifully. I was so happy to be able to create this story because I feel that we don’t have many action heroines and powerful women who go out and kick a** (Pardon my French). I was always inspired by James Cameron when he created Sarah Connor in the Terminator franchise or Ridley Scott creating Ripley in the Alien franchise. Some of my favorite movie characters are strong, powerful women. I feel that we don’t get enough of those on the big screen in action films.

JS: What effects were used in creating Nara the demon?

AK: Nara was inspired by different anime and manga characters. Let me tell you, Nara’s costume was the most expensive thing in the whole movie. Actress Anita Korosi had to fly from New York straight to Seoul in January —Korea is super cold and snowy in January. She was jet-lagged and hungry, yet she went straight to the studio, had to put her whole upper body from the hips up in a cast, she could only breathe through her nose, and she was in this position for six hours! She couldn’t go to the restroom. She was jet-lagged. She was hungry. It was a hard thing to do, but her commitment was so inspiring, and I really appreciated it. That’s why the character turned out so well.

JS: As an indie filmmaker, what are the obstacles that you face, whether difficulty in funding or distribution?

AK: It is a different ball game right now. We are very limited with resources, scheduling, and whatnot. But my personality doesn’t compromise. I don’t accept no for an answer. I’m not shy. I’m not afraid to hustle and make things happen for me. It is really important to stay true to my vision of what I want to create and, also—more importantly—why I want to create it. Everything has to have a purpose. For example, if I have to make an action scene, it has to have a purpose, and that is why it seems that you are excited about the movie because you notice the details and how the characters have deeper meaning.

Making a film takes time, and I’m a perfectionist in a sense that I don’t mind reshooting until I feel comfortable. I know it sounds cliché, but I consider each of my movies as part of my being. They are my babies because I really give them my soul, and it shows when you’re making art from the heart. This is how it reaches the viewer, and they connect with you on an artistic and personal level as well.

This was a long journey because we shot the whole movie in South Korea in winter. It was very cold, and there were language barriers on top of that, but it’s crazy how the universe works. If you’re honest and kind with people, they respond to you because everybody wants to be part of a collective that has a purpose. Kindness and honesty are highly important in this industry, and it seems that our purpose was worthy enough for people to join and make this film happen.

JS: The film features the first-ever fight sequence on a descending car elevator, which was done without VFX for authenticity. Tell me more about this.

AK: I wasn’t even aware of that until I collaborated on this movie with Gui-Duck Kwon, who is a Blue Dragon Award-winning South Korean action choreographer. I heard about him while watching a podcast where the John Wick director was talking about what inspired his fights. He mentioned this guy’s name when he did the movie The Villainess, which is a South Korean action movie. So I looked up Gui-Duck Kwon, and we connected really well. Later he told me, “Attila, if you pull this scene off, it’s going to be the first time this ever happened in South Korea or even in history.” To elevate the scene, we did it without VFX. We rehearsed a lot, and it was a very major undertaking, especially when you consider this is an indie film. That’s when Kwon told me, “Attila, this is the first time this has ever happened,” and it means so much to me.

A lot of work and sacrifice went into this, so it always warms my heart when I hear it praised.

JS: What was the most difficult scene to shoot? It could be something that the average viewer wouldn’t expect to be that difficult?

AK: Oh, I never thought about this because everything was so enjoyable. But I would say the fight on the descending car elevator because the car elevator broke while we were filming, and it stayed on the top floor. This is a highly mechanical detail. So the stunt got stuck while they were rehearsing on the top of the high-rise building. It was winter, and they had thin shirts on because they were rehearsing in a short stage to match the characters later on, so we called the mechanic to come out to the scene and fix the elevator. Believe it or not, he was drunk, so he couldn’t drive.

It sounds crazy, but we had to do something about it. I took the camera on my shoulder, and my shoulders are really wide; I’m a big guy, and I climbed on very narrow ladders almost 60 meters high with the weight of the big camera on my shoulder. By the time I arrived, my fingers were numb, and then I saw the stunt team, and they were freezing. That’s when I had this instant idea and said, “Hey guys, let’s choreograph a new scene on the spot. Let’s make it as if the elevator is stuck and shoot the scene on the top of the broken elevator. Then I took out the camera, they choreographed it quickly, and it ended up being a thirty-second sequence that we kept in the final cut.

When we talk about this scene, it makes me realize the power of cinema and things that happen on the spot and how we work around it.

JS: What is the next step in your journey for Demon Dancer? Where do you plan to take it next?

AK: The film came out in South Korea on April 30th, 2026. It became the number one action fantasy film on digital platforms there. It got a lot of publicity in South Korea, and that enabled us to raise additional funding and redo some of the VFX shots, edit the sound mix, and add more scenes to clarify certain things in the film. Now that everything is done, we are starting to send it out and you’re among one of the first few critics who saw the full movie. Demon Dancer is coming out in the United States in limited theatrical release in December, 2026. I am super excited for that.