Kim Jong Il: a film director who ran a country

Th e considered text aims at explaining the passion of the former North Korean leader Kim Jong Il (1942-2011) for cinema. Th e paper will proceed in three steps: Explaining the Cinema Passion of Kim Jong Il, outlining its realizations in North Korea. Th e third party will focus on the kidnapping of Choi Seun Hee and Shin Sang Ok. Kim Jong Il wanted that all fi lms 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 fi lm theorist. What has to be enlighten is the fact that until the his death, Kim Jong Il was aff ected by cinema.