Among 21 doc­u­ment­ary films qual­i­fied to the com­pet­i­tion Nor­disk Pan­or­ama — Five Cit­ies Film Fest­i­wal there is Andrzej Fidyk’s film „Yodok stories“.

Fest­ival, which starts on 25^th Septem­ber in Reyk­javik, is an annual present­a­tion of short and doc­u­ment­ary films pro­duced in Den­mark, Fin­land, Ice­land, Nor­way and Sweden. Fidyk’s film is a Polish-​Swedish co-​production.

Yodok is the name of one of the North Korean con­cen­tra­tion camps. The film has seven prot­ag­on­ists — ex-​prisoners of the con­cen­tra­tion camps. They take part in mak­ing a musical in dif­fer­ent ways. The musical is based on their authen­tic stor­ies. One of the char­ac­ters was a per­sonal body­guard of Kim Jong Ill. He escaped to China, and then was taken back to North Korea, where he had been tor­tured for half a year and imprisoned in the con­cen­tra­tion camp. The lead­ing North Korean dan­cer became the musical’s cho­reo­grapher. She spent 8 years in the camp, and lost her par­ents and child there. We also watch a former prison guard, who was an exe­cu­tioner in the camp, and in Seoul he makes friends with his victims.

TRAILER filmu: http://​www​.yodok​film​.com/​d​o​c​s​/​m​e​d​i​a​/​y​o​d​o​k​_​t​r​a​i​l​e​r​_​m​e​d​i​u​m.mov

The film received the young people’s awards at Plan­ete Doc Review in 2008 and at Ber­gen Inter­na­tional Film Fest­ival. It was also nom­in­ated for the award of Joris Ivens – the most import­ant doc­u­ment­ary films fest­ival on the world – IDFA in Ams­ter­dam, and was presen­ted at IDA Docuweek.

Andrzej Fidyk is a dir­ector and scriptwriter of doc­u­ment­ary films and report­ages made for the Pol­ish Tele­vi­sion, a gradu­ate of Warsaw School of Eco­nom­ics Depart­ment of For­eign Trade. He began work­ing for TV in 1980 as a res­ult of a com­pet­i­tion for pro­duc­tion man­agers. From 1996 to 2004 he was the chief editor of doc­u­ment­ary films in TVP1. He was the ori­gin­ator of pro­grammes such as: “Time for doc­u­ment­ary”, “Eyes wide open”, and the author of widely acclaimed films, includ­ing “Parade”, “Dance of the reeds”, and “Mobile cinema of dreams”.

http://​www​.nor​disk​panorama​.com

http://​www​.yodok​film​.com/