Yodok Stories
Inside North Korea
Today, more than 300.000 men, women and children are locked up in North Korea’s concentration camps. Systematic torture, starvation and murder is what face the inmates. Few survive many years in the camps, but the population is kept stable by a steady influx of new persons considered to be ‘class enemies’.
A small group of people have managed to flee from the camps to a new life in the prosperous South Korea. Some of them gather and decide to make an extraordinary and controversial musical about their experiences in the Yodok concentration camp.
Despite death threats and many obstacles the musical becomes a tour de force for this ensemble of refugees. For them a possibility opens to talk about their experiences and inspire others to protest the existence of the camps.
Technical Specifications
Year 2008
Length 83 min, 58 min
Languages Korean, English
Production companies Piraya Film, MG Production
Production countries Norway, Poland
Sales/Distribution Festival distribution: The Norwegian film Institute. International sales: Kudos Family
Format DCP / HDCam
World Premiere Planete Doc Review, Poland, May 12 2008
IMDB https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1266731
Gallery
Awards
2010 Hollywood Eagle for Best Documentary, Polish Film Festival, USA
2009 Jerusalem International Film Festival: In the Spirit of Freedom Award
2009 Nominated for Best Cinematography, Plus Camerimage, Poland
2008 Joris Ivens Awards Finalist, IDFA, The Netherlands
2008 Planete Doc Review, Warsaw: Youth Jury Award
2008 Bergen International Film Festival: Youth Jury’s Documentary Award
Festivals
2012
North Korean Human Rights Film Festival in Toronto, Canada
2011
Input, Seoul, South Korea
2010
The Art of the Document Festival, Warsaw, Poland
Brisbane Underground Film Festival, Australia
Polish Film Festival, Los Angeles, USA
Thessaloniki International Documentary Film Festival, Greece
Victoria Film Festival, Canada
2009
Plus Camerimage, Poland
Black Nights Film Festival, Estonia
Århus filmfestival, Denmark
Sheffield Docu Fest, UK
Verzio Human Rights Documentary Film Festival, Budapest
People in Peril, Bratislava
DMZ Docs, South Korea
Document 7 – Int’l Human Rights Film Festival Glasgow
Nagoya Refugee Film Festival, Japan
Oakland Int. Film Festival, USA
International Culture Forum, Sweden
Nordisk Panorama 5 Cities Film Festival, Reykjavik
Global Peace Film Festival, Orlando, USA
Holocaust and Genocide International Films, Melbourne, Australia
Jerusalem International Film Festival, Israel
Senza Frontieri – Without Borders Film Festival, Rome
Doxa Documentary Film Festival, Vancouver
Tribeca Film Festival, USA
Den norske dokumentarfilmfestivalen, Volda
Beldocs, Beograd, Serbia
Movies That Matter – Amnesty International Film Festival, Serbia
Belfast Film Festival
African, Asian and Latin American Film Festival, Milano
One World Film Festival, Romania
Amnesty International Film Festival Movies That Matters, The Netherlands
One World Film Festival, Prague
Festival du Film et Forum International sur les Droits Humains, Geneva
2008
International Documentary Festival Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Bergen Internasjonale Filmfestival
Planete DocReview, Warsaw, Poland