Making Movies in North Korea

 

Yesterday I listened to a great segment from This American Life called Same Bed Different Dreams. The episode describes a husband who was a filmmakers and a wife who was an actress in South Korea and were divorced at the time they were kidnapped by North Korean agents. The story is summarized as 

Kim Jong-Il loved movies, but hated all the movies made in North Korea. So he kidnapped a famous South Korean director and his ex-wife—a South Korean film star—locked them up in a villa in North Korea, and forced them to make movies for him.

This story is told in greater depth in the book A Kim Jong-Il Production by Paul Fischer. I read this book several years ago and highly recommend it. This story of two people who were kidnapped, imprisoned, forced to make movies, and, after several years, make a dramatic escape while filming in Vienna is an aspect of North Korean history worth your time.