Kim Jong Il: a film director who ran a country.
Kim Jong Il: a film director who ran a country.

Summary/Abstract: The considered text aims at explaining the passion of the former North Korean leader Kim Jong Il (1942-2011) for cinema. The paper will proceed in three steps: Explaining the Cinema Passion of Kim Jong Il, outlining its realizations in North Korea. The third party will focus on the kidnapping of Choi Seun Hee and Shin Sang Ok. Kim Jong Il wanted that all films were made according to the North Korean ideology for which he was responsible. Starting from the mid 1970’s, Kim Jong Il implemented cinema in his strategical polical approach through some of the political departments of the Korea Workers’ Party. North Korean movies were supposed to strengthen and legitimate the power of the Kim family and the image of North Korea abroad. As far as media were under the control of the state organization Kim Jong Il was a director, a producer, even a costume maker, a screenwriter, cameraman, a sound engineer and he was also seen as a film theorist. What has to be enlighten is the fact that until the his death, Kim Jong Il was affected by cinema.

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