London Korean Links

Covering things Korean in London and beyond since 2006

Refugee Week screening: ‘Little Pyongyang’

Date: Friday 21 June 2024, 6:30 - 8:30pm
Venue:
Garden Cinema | 39-41 Parker Street | London WC2B 5PQ | | [Map]

Tickets: £13.70 | Buy tickets here
Little Pyongyang

Join Connect: North Korea for a fundraiser screening of the award-winning short film, ‘Little Pyongyang,’ followed by a Q&A session in conversation with the film’s director Roxy Rezvany, and members of the North Korean community.

We will be discussing what has changed for the community since the film’s original release, the limits which the North Korean education system imposes on escapees’ prospects, and CNK’s flagship international project which aims to empower North Korean people to pursue higher education, wherever they are in the world.

This event is hosted in partnership with Counterpoints and Other Cinemas as part of Refugee Week UK, and will be moderated by Laith Elzubaidi from Counterpoints.

About Little Pyongyang

A tale of one North Korean’s struggle to leave behind the homeland, Joong-wha Choi, a former soldier in the DPRK, lives today with his wife and kids in a sleepy London suburb. Despite enjoying the new found comforts of his British life, and being emancipated from the pressures of the North Korean state, his dilemma lies in a desire to return to the land that betrayed him, but is undoubtedly his true home.

The film tracks his reflections on both why he left North Korea and the state of his day to day life over the course of several months, in what is ultimately a portrait of loss, longing, and the complexities of healing from trauma.

With exclusive access to one of the world’s largest communities of North Korean defectors, Joong-wha’s story extends to the community he lives alongside. At a time when the world is wrapped up in the exchanges of pomp and bravado between two theatrical but powerful world leaders, we recognise the North Korean defectors on Britain’s doorstep, and follow Joong-wha as he considers his mission to seek change for North Korea.