Director Jeon Kyu-hwan’s feature-length film “The Weight” has been included in the line-up of the Venice Film Festival’s autonomous sidebar section, the movie’s distributor Fine Cut said.

Jeon, whose previous works include Berlinale-featured “Varanasi” and “Dance Town,” has become the first Korean director to be invited to the “Venice Days” competition program. The sidebar is widely considered to be the equivalent of Cannes Director’s Fortnight.

Starring “Beyond the Years” and “Bad Guy” actor Cho Jae-hyun, Jeon’s film tells the story of a mortician who accepts corpses of those who died without family members to pay for the funeral. The film is slated to open in theaters in Korea by the end of the year.

Also included in the 10-film competition program at the Venice Film Festival are Swedish director Jesper Ganslandt’s “Blondie”; Israeli director Amir Manor’s “Epiloque”; and Canadian director Sarah Polley’s film “Stories We Tell.”

The Venice Film Festival runs from Aug. 20 to Sept. 8.

By Claire Lee (dyc@heraldcorp.com)