‘Seeing an American movie is a death sentence’: How Titanic saved the life of a woman who escaped from North Korea

Can cinema save lives? While some are still debating the matter, Park Yeon Mi He decided a long time ago: yes, a thousand times yes. In 2007, when he was 13, he fled his home country of North Korea, he confided to the newspaper. The Guardian In 2014, about living in the hell of a relentless and paranoid dictatorship orchestrated by the Kim dynasty. A horrifying display.

Secretly feeding on foreign films as a rare and lucrative window into the world, one film in particular was instrumental in his escape to the country: James Cameron’s Titanic.

The death penalty for an American film

The beginning of his story is terrifying. When he was barely 9 years old, he was forced to attend the execution of the mother of one of his classmates with the whole school. A crowd gathered in the stadium to watch this murder. Reason ? The victim had the misfortune of borrowing a South Korean movie from a friend… condemned, shot.

In the most closed country on the planet, in which the doctrine juiceThat is, economic autarky – it is even enshrined in the constitution and largely supported by intensive propaganda, the black or parallel market has developed significantly. In a country that lacks almost everything, this black market is par for the course of vital importance.

Thus, the country is flooded with legal or illegal products from China such as DVD players. Participating in this thriving underground economy are pirated copies of movies that trade under the coattails. They are even a bargain: according to the testimony Park Yeon-mi A DVD is exchanged for almost 2 kg of rice.

Something to help the family – and the wider population – relax The terrible famine that hit the country in the mid-1990swhich killed up to a million people. “Everyone was hungry, so we couldn’t afford to buy a lot of DVDs.” So if I had Snow White And because my friend had James Bond, we swapped our movies.” He recalls.

But woe betide anyone who caught a film not approved by the regime. He also recalls that depending on the origin of the film, there are different punishments: If you were caught with a Bollywood or Russian movie, you would be thrown in jail for three years, but if you were South Korean or American, you would be executed.

“I don’t understand why this man sacrificed his life for this woman”

Despite the risk of being caught if denounced, he was unwilling to stop watching these films secretly, Because they were the opening of the world for us. My favorite movies were Titanic, James Bond and Beautiful woman. People were getting pirated copies from China.”

In this way, he reminds the journalist of the Guardian, what influence he had on Hollywood movie stories. “In North Korea, everything is about the Supreme Leader, whether it’s books, music or television. What upset me about Titanic was that this man He gave his life to this woman, not to his homeland.

I could not understand this state of mind. In North Korean culture, love is shameful and no one talked about it in public. The regime did not care about human desires and romance was forbidden.’

He adds: “Another shocking thing about this film is that the action took place 100 years ago and I realized that our country is in the 21st century and we have not yet reached this level of development. I realized that something was wrong. Everyone, regardless of color, culture or language, seemed to care about love, except us. Why didn’t Rezi let us say that?”

Now 30, married and the mother of a little boy, Park Yeon-mi lives in the United States. He became a journalist and lecturer. But also a passionate activist for the cause of North Korean refugees.