FIDYK WILL FIGHT FOR THE NORDIC AWARD
Among 21 documentary films qualified to the competition Nordisk Panorama — Five Cities Film Festiwal there is Andrzej Fidyk’s film „Yodok stories“.
Festival, which starts on 25th September in Reykjavik, is an annual presentation of short and documentary films produced in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. Fidyk’s film is a Polish-Swedish co-production.
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.
TRAILER filmu: http://www.yodokfilm.com/docs/media/yodok_trailer_medium.mov
The film received the young people’s awards at Planete Doc Review in 2008 and at Bergen International Film Festival. It was also nominated for the award of Joris Ivens – the most important documentary films festival on the world – IDFA in Amsterdam, and was presented at IDA Docuweek.
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”.
http://www.nordiskpanorama.com