The film draws its name from this bright red flower and reveals the extraordinary stories told by survivors of North Koreas vast prison camps, of deadly famine, and of every kind of repression. In a series of devastating interviews with refugees, director N.C. Helkin traces their torturous paths to freedom, on rickety sailboats and across mountain passes, while exposing the inhuman conditions they suffered in the nations concentration camps. Their experiences are interspersed with archival footage of North Korean propaganda films and original scenes that illuminate the contours of daily life for a people whose every action is monitored, and whose every thought could bring official retribution. Along with the survivors stories, "Kimjongilia" examines the mass illusion possible under totalitarianism and the human rights abuses required to maintain that illusion.
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