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Yodok Stories

North American Premiere

Poland, Norway | 82 MINUTES | Korean, English |

YODOK STORIES

Documentary

Yodok: site of North Korea's most notorious political concentration camp, a word that registers barely a blip on the radar for most of the world. The limited access to North Korea by outsiders gives little, if any, glimpse into the ongoing horrors of this closed-off country's labor camps. But for those living here, dissent and disobedience of even the slightest degree are grounds for offenders to be relocated to the camps, from which few emerge alive to tell their story.

Multiple award-winning director Andrzej Fidyk (North Korea: The Parade) finds a few such escapees living in exile in South Korea. Among them is Jung Sung San, former director of some of North Korea's most ambitious propagandistic musical theater displays. Fidyk convinces him to turn his talents toward a work revealing the true North Korea, using the traditional musical theater style. Exposing subject matter notoriously shrouded in secrecy, this uplifting and sobering doc blends testimonials from survivors and scenes from the controversial stage show, exploring in detail the atrocities these men faced as prisoners—and the challenges they face while trying to express them through art.

Co-presented by

 


CAST & CREDITS

Directed by Andrzej Fidyk and Andrzej Fidyk

Andrzej Fidyk (b. 1953, Warsaw, Poland) has directed more than 40 documentary films for Polish and British television and has been awarded a number of prizes for his work. Many regard Fidyk as one of Poland's best documentary film directors, and his filmography includes favorites like Battu's Bioscope (aka Mobile Cinema of Dreams, 1998) and The Parade (1989). Fidyk was originally educated as an economist, majoring in international trade at Warsaw University.

Producer
Torstein Grude
Associate Producer
Bjarte Mørner Tveit
Director
Andrzej Fidyk
Editor
Jan Mikolaj Mironowicz
Composer
Kyung Chan Cha
Director of Photography
Tore Vollan, Torstein Grude

CONTACTS

Print Source
Toril Simonsen
Norwegian Film Institute
Dronningens gate 16, PO Box 482 Sentrum Oslo, 0105
Phone: + 47 2247 4574
ts@nfi.no
Press Contact
Klara Grunning-Harris
Kudos Family Distribution
2828 Filbert Street, #4 Oakland, CA 94608
Phone: 415 342 1539
klara@kudosfamily.com
Technical Contact
Torstein Grude
Kvitsøygata 25 Stavanger, 4014
Phone: + 47 51 11 63 36
torstein@piraya.no
Director's Manager
Grude Torstein
Piraya Film AS
Kvitsoygata 2 Stavenger, 4014
Phone: +47.5111.6336
torstein@piraya.no