Inside North Korea

Napalm

2017 · ★ 4.9

Napalm is the story of the breathtaking and brief encounter, in 1958, between a French member of the first Western European delegation officially invited to North Korea after the devastating Korean war and a nurse working for the Korean Red Cross hospital, in Pyongyang, capital of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

Assassins

2021 · ★ 6.8

True crime meets global spy thriller in this gripping account of the assassination of Kim Jong-nam, the half brother of the North Korean leader. The film follows the trial of the two female assassins, probing the question: were the women trained killers or innocent pawns of North Korea?

A State of Mind

2005 · ★ 7.8

Two young North Korean gymnasts prepare for an unprecedented competition in this documentary that offers a rare look into the communist society and the daily lives of North Korean families. For more than eight months, film crews follow 13-year-old Pak Hyon Sun and 11-year-old Kim Song Yun and their families as the girls train for the Mass Games, a spectacular nationalist celebration.

The People's Crisis

2012

The real crisis in North Korea is not about its reclusive leaders or its nuclear weapons. It is about 24 million people living under the most ruthless system of political oppression ever assembled by humankind. The North Korean people have suffered through crippling poverty, humanitarian disasters, chronic food shortages, and a denial of even the most basic freedoms. This documentary offers a comprehensive overview of the North Korean people's crisis, feature interviews with North Korean refugees who have escaped, their journey to freedom, expert analysis, and insight into some of the grassroots changes happening inside the country.

Homes Apart: Korea

1991

They speak the same language, share a similar culture and once belonged to a single nation. When the Korean War ended in 1953, ten million families were torn apart. By the early 90s, as the rest of the world celebrated the end of the Cold War, Koreans remain separated between North and South, fearing the threat of mutual destruction. Beginning with one man's journey to reunite with his sister in North Korea, filmmakers Takagi and Choy reveal the personal, social and political dimensions of one of the last divided nations on earth. The film was also the first US project to get permission to film in both South & North Korea.

Crossing the Line

2006 · ★ 7.5

In 1962, a U.S. soldier sent to guard the peace in South Korea deserted his unit, walked across the most heavily fortified area on earth and defected to the Cold War enemy, the communist state of North Korea. He became a star of the North Korean propaganda machine, but then disappeared from the face of the earth. Now, after 45 years, the story of James Dresnok, the last American defector in North Korea, is being told for the first time. Crossing the Line follows Dresnok as he recalls his childhood, desertion, and life in the DPRK.

An Inconvenient Border: Where China Meets North Korea

2017 · ★ 6

Bob Woodruff’s daring 880-mile journey along the China-North Korea border examines the delicate relationship between the two countries and the United States.

North Korea: Life Inside the Secret State

2013 · ★ 3

North Koreans are breaking down the barriers of the gulag state. Following covert filmmakers, this doc shows real life under the new leader Kim Jong Un, highlighting the contrasting ox-drawn farms to the glittering life of the elite in Pyongyang. The starving children on the streets are of artificial food shortages engendered by corruption. See how USBs, cell phones and DVDs from the South are transforming North Koreans' views of their world.

Ryeohaeng

2019

A group of women climbs a summer mountain situated in South Korea. They are refugees who have settled into South Korean society after fleeing from North Korea. For them, climbing the mountains has been an unavoidable journey for survival - a matter of life and death.

Shadow Flowers

2021

Ryun-hee Kim, a North Korean housewife, was forced to come to South Korea and became its citizen against her will. As her seven years of struggle to go back to her family in North Korea continues, the political absurdity hinders her journey back to her loved ones. The life of her family in the North goes on in emptiness, and she fears that she might become someone, like a shadow, who exists only in the fading memory of her family.​

Cinema in the Land of Comrade Kim

2024 · ★ 10

The love of Kim Jong Il, the former dictator of North Korea, for cinema and his adventures, including the kidnapping of a director.

What I managed to spy on in North Korea

In the second part of our film about North Korea, we peeked into real life in one of the most closed countries in the world. What does the average person's day look like? What currency do they use? Who works the fields? What do local guides hide from tourists? To answer all these questions, we grabbed a hidden camera and went filming in North Korea.