By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Andrzej Fidyk
Country: norway, poland
Year: 2009
Running time: 83
IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1266731/reference
Bruce says: “YODUK STORIES is one of those films that makes perfect sense during the screening but disintegrates considerably the further one gets from the viewing. The concept is unusual. Andrzej Fidyk traveled to North Korea to make a short film PARADES about a patriotic celebration that thousands of young people rehearsed twelve hours a day for six months. For the totalitarian display North Korea used both Nazi and Stalinist models. Fidyk heard of the concentration camps of North Korea but it wasn’t until he met Jung Sun Sang, a North Korean theatre director who escaped a concentration camp and defected to South Korea, that the horrors of the camps became a reality for him. Fidyk talked the director into creating a Broadway sized musical telling the stories of seven people who had escaped. YODUK STORIES is a film in which those seven talking heads recount their stories as the musical is slowly developed, choreographed, blocked and rehearsed.
“The problem is that after the viewing the seven stories blur together diminishing their initial impact. One story that stands out is told by a man who formerly was a security guard in one of the camps; he went along with the brutality. A common reason for incarceration in North Korea is guilt by association. It therefore is not uncommon for seven family members to be hauled off to camps if one person in the family is suspected of a crime against the state. That is how the guard became a prisoner. Another man tells of arriving at the airport in Seoul where everyone was smiling. Until then, he hadn’t seen anyone smile for years. “The seven defectors tell of beatings, killing and torture. Women were raped, sold to brothels and used for sex by farmers who were too isolated to find their own women. Many people were undernourished, particularly young children. Mothers would catch pregnant rats, fry the fetuses and give them to the children for nourishment. Musical numbers reenact some of the worst moments. For the defectors, the process is cathartic.
“The one thing missing from the film is shots of scenes from the musical during actual performances. We are told ‘Yoduk’ is one of the most successful musicals ever staged in South Korea. After hearing one heart wrenching story after another, the completed product would have made a good finishing touch for the film. YODUK STORIES is a painful reminder of the luxuries and freedom we take for granted. 3.5 cats
(YODUK STORIES screened at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival.)”