YODOK STORIES

POLISH TITLE: HISTORIE Z YODOK

Yodok is the name of one of the North Korean con­cen­tra­tion camps. The film has seven prot­ag­on­ists  — ex-​​prisoners of the con­cen­tra­tion camps. They take part in mak­ing a musical in dif­fer­ent ways. The musical is based on their authen­tic stor­ies. One of the char­ac­ters was a per­sonal body­guard of Kim Jong Ill. He escaped to China, and then was taken back to North Korea, where he had been tor­tured for half a year and imprisoned in the con­cen­tra­tion camp. The lead­ing North Korean dan­cer became the musical’s cho­reo­grapher. She spent 8 years in the camp, and lost her par­ents and child there. We also watch a former prison guard, who was an exe­cu­tioner in the camp, and in Seoul he makes friends with his victims.

GENRE:
documentary
RUNNING TIME:
83'
YEAR:
DIRECTING:
Andrzej Fidyk
DOP:
Torstein Grude, Tore Vollan
PRODUCTION:
Piraya Film

Andrzej Fidyk »

is a dir­ector and scriptwriter of doc­u­ment­ary films and report­ages made for the Pol­ish Tele­vi­sion, a gradu­ate of Warsaw School of Eco­nom­ics Depart­ment of For­eign Trade. He began work­ing for TV in 1980 as a res­ult of a com­pet­i­tion for pro­duc­tion man­agers. From 1996 to 2004 he was the chief editor of doc­u­ment­ary films in TVP1.  He was the ori­gin­ator of pro­grammes such as: “Time for doc­u­ment­ary”, “Eyes wide open”, and the author of widely acclaimed films, includ­ing “Parade”, “Dance of the reeds”, and “Mobile cinema of dreams”.