Screening + After-talk: Comrade Kim Goes Flying
Join us for a special screening of Comrade Kim Goes Flying, featuring a Q&A with director and producer Nicholas Bonner.
About the film:
Billed as North Korea’s first-ever ‘Girl power’ movie, Comrade Kim Goes Flying tells the story of a young coal miner that dreams of being an acrobat. The film is a British-Belgian-North Korean co-production, made inside North Korea with a North Korean cast. Crew members from North Korea, China, and Europe helped bring the film to life.
Audiences will be treated to a peek into North Korean culture. Comrade Kim Goes Flying is not a documentary about life in North Korea. It is a feature film that tells a North Korean story with universal themes - what it means to believe in the impossible and chase dreams.
The film was released in 2012. In the years since, international engagement with North Korea has faced many challenges. The film serves as a reminder of what has been possible in the past. It also encourages us to think about what we’d like to see become possible in the future.
About the director:
Director and producer Nicholas Bonner will join us in Groningen for the screening. Nicholas first traveled to North Korea in 1993. He is the co-founder of Koryo Tours, a Beijing-based company specialising in travel to North Korea. He has made documentaries about North Korea, including the Game of Their Lives (2002), A State of Mind (2004), and Crossing the Line (2006). Nicholas’s books include Made in North Korea (2017) and Printed in North Korea (2019). He has an extensive collection of North Korean art.
The After Talk:
Nicholas will be joined in the Q&A by RUG academics Dr David Shim, an expert in visual politics that worked in North Korea on a food aid programme, and Dr Nazanin Zadeh-Cummings, a specialist in international engagement with North Korea that visited the country in 2016. The Q&A will be moderated by Dr Cristina Pinna, a researcher on Europe-China relations.
Logistics:
- This talk will be in English / The film will be subtitled in English
- Entrance is free, no registration needed
- Open to the public