Documentary
In 1962, a U.S. soldier sent to guard the peace in South Korea deserted his unit, walked across the most heavily fortified area on earth and defected to the Cold War enemy, the communist state of North Korea. He became a star of the North Korean propaganda machine, but then disappeared from the face of the earth. Now, after 45 years, the story of James Dresnok, the last American defector in North Korea, is being told for the first time. Crossing the Line follows Dresnok as he recalls his childhood, desertion, and life in the DPRK.
MOVIE COMMENTS
SIMILAR MOVIES
Have Fun in Pyongyang
Kim Jong-un: The Unauthorized Biography
Sona, the Other Myself
The Mole: Undercover in North Korea
DMZ, The Wild
Worlds largest rocket builder
A State of Mind
North Korea: Inside The Mind of a Dictator
Homes Apart: Korea
Inside North Korea
Korea: The Never-Ending War
The Faces of North Korea
North Korea: A Day in the Life
Kimjongilia
An Inconvenient Border: Where China Meets North Korea
Dennis Rodman's Big Bang in PyongYang
The Fantastic
The Land of Frogs
Hana, dul, sed
Assassins
SIMILAR MOVIES
Have Fun in Pyongyang
IMDB 7.2 | Oct , 2019
Is it possible to have fun in Pyongyang? Can one be joyful in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea? If so, who can? Everyone? Doing what? Why does Kim Jong-un bet on amusement parks, skis trails, and tourism? This film allows to go beyond mass parades and recurring missile crisis, to meet the people of North Korean “Hermit Kingdom”. The authors have been there dozen times, like amateur anthropologists, filming during eight years parties and harvests, factories and singing contests, Pyongyang and the countryside – and interviewing North Korean people.Kim Jong-un: The Unauthorized Biography
IMDB 7.5 | Sep , 2015
A journey through several countries to find those who really know Kim Jong-un, North Korea's leader, in an attempt to profile a contradictory dictator who seems to rule his nation with both disturbing benevolence and cold cruelty while being worshipped as a living god by his subjects in exalted displays of ridiculous fanaticism.Sona, the Other Myself
IMDB 7 | Feb , 2010
Documentary focuses on Sona, the daughter of the director’s brother who moved to North Korea from Japan in the early 1970s. Through Sona, the film shows the generation that migrated from Japan to North Korea and their offspring who were born and raised in North Korea.The Mole: Undercover in North Korea
IMDB 6.9 | Oct , 2020
A real-life undercover thriller about two ordinary men who embark on an outrageously dangerous ten-year mission to penetrate the world's most secretive and brutal dictatorship: North Korea.DMZ, The Wild
IMDB 0 | Apr , 2017
4-Part documentary series where Lee Min Ho films over a 700-day period in the DMZ to capture nature and animals. Untouched by humans for over half a century, DMZ’s nature would be close to how this land would look when the civilization disappears. Nature and wilderness breathe here freely, and endangered species have made the place their habitat. With the narration of actor Lee Min-ho, the documentary reveals the beauty of Korea’s nature in its rawest and purest form. Here, there is a silent land where humans stepped down. It is a military demarcation line between North and South. It is the foremost front that consumed two-thirds of the 37-month Korean War, and the DMZ, a military operation area that has not been available for more than 60 years since the armistice. It is the largest temperate primeval forest on Earth, where human history of heartbreak and the wild survival of wild animals coexist.Worlds largest rocket builder
IMDB 8.3 | Feb , 2022
It’s October 10 2020 and Kim Jong-un presents the largest mobile rocket on Earth. Jippe Liefbroer, Interaction Design student, sees the rocket and thinks: it can be bigger. For his graduation project he built 'Kimmi's worst nightmare', a 31 meter long rocket. That is 1 meter longer than Kim Jung-un's.A State of Mind
IMDB 7.9 | Aug , 2005
Two young North Korean gymnasts prepare for an unprecedented competition in this documentary that offers a rare look into the communist society and the daily lives of North Korean families. For more than eight months, film crews follow 13-year-old Pak Hyon Sun and 11-year-old Kim Song Yun and their families as the girls train for the Mass Games, a spectacular nationalist celebration.North Korea: Inside The Mind of a Dictator
IMDB 6.1 | Jan , 2021
A journey through Kim Jong Un’s past and present to understand the man and the myth who holds North Korea’s uncertain future in his hands.Homes Apart: Korea
IMDB 0 | Jan , 1991
They speak the same language, share a similar culture and once belonged to a single nation. When the Korean War ended in 1953, ten million families were torn apart. By the early 90s, as the rest of the world celebrated the end of the Cold War, Koreans remain separated between North and South, fearing the threat of mutual destruction. Beginning with one man's journey to reunite with his sister in North Korea, filmmakers Takagi and Choy reveal the personal, social and political dimensions of one of the last divided nations on earth. The film was also the first US project to get permission to film in both South & North Korea.Inside North Korea
IMDB 7.1 | Mar , 2006
Join National Geographic's Lisa Ling as she captures a rare look inside North Korea - something few Americans have ever been able to do. Posing as an undercover medical coordinator and closely guarded throughout her trip, Lisa moves inside the most isolated nation in the world, encountering a society completely dominated by government and dictatorship. Glimpse life inside North Korea as you've never seen before with personal accounts and powerful footage. Witness first-hand efforts by humanitarians and the challenges they face from the rogue regime.Korea: The Never-Ending War
IMDB 7.9 | Apr , 2019
Shedding new light on a geopolitical hot spot, the film — written and produced by John Maggio and narrated by Korean-American actor John Cho — confronts the myth of the “Forgotten War,” documenting the post-1953 conflict and global consequences.The Faces of North Korea
IMDB 0 | Jan , 2025
This is a 25-minutes piece about the DPRK (North Korea), a country Vltchek visited and fell in love with. Vltchek goes against the hegemonic western propaganda that is perpetuated towards DPRK and their people, showing the beauty that resides in the country.North Korea: A Day in the Life
IMDB 6.5 | Jan , 2004
If the cityscapes and patriotic anthems of this film seem a far cry from the bleak landscape of Seoul Train, that's no accident. Dutch filmmaker Pieter Fleury, with the full permission and cooperation of the North Korean government, created this propaganda film that gives us a glimpse of a day in the life of one of the world's most enigmatic societies. A Day in the Life, largely dictated by the North Korean film bureau, follows a typical North Korean family through their daily duties, largely dedicated to the pride in the North Korean nation of comrades and the glory of General Kim Jong Il. The film is meant to extol the success of modern North Korea. But does it? With straight footage and a total absence of narration, viewers may interpret Fleury's film in a slightly different manner than intendedKimjongilia
IMDB 6.2 | Jan , 2009
The first film to fully expose the humanitarian crisis of North Korea, this stylish, deeply moving documentary is centered around astonishing interviews with survivors of North Korea's vast and largely hidden prison camps, and interspersed with archival footage of North Korean propoganda films and original art performances.An Inconvenient Border: Where China Meets North Korea
IMDB 0 | Sep , 2017
Bob Woodruff’s daring 880-mile journey along the China-North Korea border examines the delicate relationship between the two countries and the United States.Dennis Rodman's Big Bang in PyongYang
IMDB 6.5 | Jan , 2015
Dennis Rodman is on a mission. After forging an unlikely friendship with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, he wants to improve relations between North Korea and the US by staging a historic basketball game between the two countries. But the North Korean team isn't the only opposition he'll face... Condemned by the NBA and The Whitehouse, and hounded every step of the way by the press, can Dennis keep it together and make the game happen? Or will it go up in a mushroom cloud of smoke? For the first time, discover the true story of what happened when Dennis Rodman took a team of former-NBA players to North Korea and staged the most controversial game of basketball the world has never seen.The Fantastic
IMDB 6 | Oct , 2021
In Maija Blåfield’s documentary, eight former North Koreans talk about what it was like to watch illegal films in a closed society. In addition to the 'waste videos', South Korean films were also smuggled into the country via China.The Land of Frogs
IMDB 0 | Sep , 2023
The story revolves around an elderly farmer tending her fields on the border between the two Koreas. Living on the other side of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), she struggles to reclaim the land that was taken from her by the local government. The aged protagonist has already experienced the heartache of losing her homeland to the ravages of war. A poignant memory from seventy years ago resurfaces - during the Korean War, American soldiers suddenly entered her village. The subsequent division of the Korean peninsula and the course of development took away everything she held dear.Hana, dul, sed
IMDB 4.8 | Oct , 2009
Assassins
IMDB 6.8 | Aug , 2021
True crime meets global spy thriller in this gripping account of the assassination of Kim Jong-nam, the half brother of the North Korean leader. The film follows the trial of the two female assassins, probing the question: were the women trained killers or innocent pawns of North Korea?