Provocative documentary on North Korea opens in Seoul
A film about North Korean defectors that could stir up tensions on the Korean Peninsula has opened in Seoul theaters.
Seoul, South Korea
鈥� A local, slice-of-life story from a Monitor correspondent.
American filmmaker N.C. Heikin recognized the parallel at once. When she heard Kang Chol-hwan talk about his imprisonment in North Korea at age 9 along with the rest of his family, she says, 鈥渁s a Jewish woman, I felt [strongly] about a child [being] sent to a concentration camp.鈥�
Ms. Heikin, who now lives in Paris with her coproducer husband, Robert Pepin, thought of a film based on Mr. Kang鈥檚 experiences as recounted in his book, 鈥淎quariums of Pyongyang.鈥�
The result was a documentary in which Kang鈥檚 story is one of a dozen told by defectors from North Korea.
The 74-minute film, 鈥�Kimjongilia鈥� (鈥淭he Flower of Kim Jong Il鈥�), whose title is an ironic reference to a bright red begonia developed especially for Kim Jong-il, has opened in South Korea two years after its debut at the Sundance Film Festival. That鈥檚 a major step for a film that鈥檚 bound to inspire concerns about the North Korean response and the potential impact on North-South reconciliation.
鈥淚 think it鈥檚 historic the film is released here. I鈥檓 absolutely thrilled,鈥� says Heikin.
It鈥檚 鈥渋mportant,鈥� says Mr. Pepin, that China, which routinely sends defectors back if captured, see the cruel existence of North Koreans. Defectors 鈥渞un the risk of being shot to death鈥� when returned to North Korea, he says.