On Tuesday 20 January, EUFilmSoc held a screening of Comrade Kim Goes Flying in collaboration with the Edinburgh Political Union. This wasn’t just any regular screening, but one of a film that was produced in Pyongyang, North Korea — and finished off with a Q&A attended by the film’s co-director, Nicholas Bonner.
Bambi, social secretary of FilmSoc, explains how she found the film through a friend, after it had screened in the North Korean section of Poland’s Five Flavours Film Festival during the COVID-19 pandemic. The film was voted through at the society’s programming with the “highest score out of the films that were pitched.” She tells of the committee’s initial attempt to email for a license only to find that it was “quite expensive.” Then, an alternative offer was made — accommodate the filmmaker to present the film in person himself. She credits treasurer Josh, who “did all the communications, outreach, [and] logistics to make it all possible.”
A co-production between North Korea, UK, and Belgium, the story follows a North Korean coal miner, a young woman, who struggles to “fly” against the relentless expectations clouding her dreams of becoming a trapeze artist. As the first North Korean movie to screen in South Korea since 2003, the film not only made waves in its entertaining concept, but in its ambitious push and steer away from North Korean cinema typically centred on a “bad person sacrificing themselves for the country.”
The director took the floor before the viewing. “If you don’t get something”, UK-born Bonner disclaims, “then it might be because it wasn’t intended for you.” Hand-holding as the pinnacle of romantic affection, absurdly dramatic facial shots that felt amiss as if the camera was left lingering on its subject for too long — the film was certainly non-conformist in its attempts to humour its audience in a variety of ways. Unfortunately, its charm did not resonate as I was left cringing while the film shrunk itself to become the butt of the joke.
Met with students’ eager questions on cultural differences during the rare experience of producing a feature film in North Korea, the enthusiastic guest summarised the distinctive filmmaking process as one requiring “hand-holding”. No one wanted to make the film at first, he explains, and the script was lengthy to develop; a film centered on a driven female protagonist who was empowered to achieve a dream flying, as an acrobat no less, hardly fit the mould. The movie even had to be signed off by Kim Jong-Un himself to permit a North Korean release, Bonner tells, after which the project flew to life for North and South Korean audiences alike and landed at the Toronto Film Festival for a worldwide glimpse.
Bonner explains how he pushed for the centring of the “girl power”-driven narrative by ensuring the absence of a man behind the success of our “comrade.” However, watching an arm wrestle between the dedicated amateur acrobat and construction workers to secure the building of acrobatic equipment, a father’s sudden change in heart to push his daughter towards her dreams, and our lead’s love interest being the male role model to encourage her training, Kim’s achievements still largely relied on the benevolence of men to reach its full potential. In the same vein, the emphasis on working class morale as the final spark for success — “the working class can do anything if we believe in ourselves” — ignited that the film still didn’t fully steer the boat away from the propaganda pipeline as Bonner might have suggested. The “handsome” love interest holding a possible resemblance to Kim Jong-Un didn’t help the cause.
As a concluding statement, the passionate interviewee declared that the collaboration was ultimately “about trust.” Though it might not have been an achievement for my own Western sense of humour, Comrade Kim Goes Flying succeeded in propelling itself forward as a Barbie-esque, eccentric adventure that certainly entertained and stripped the boredom away from anyone entering Pleasance Upper Hall. Looking on to the future, Bonner entertains a Bollywood equivalent musical/comedy as a desirable second feature. With students patiently huddled around to lend an ear to the director’s insights even following the Q&A, it would be a given that if a second screening was opportune, the director can expect to be welcomed back with the same, if not more of the devoted attention of FilmSoc’s intrigued members once more.
Photo by Alan Wouda on Unsplash