UK filmmaker introduces NK through defector
New Malden, a suburb in southwest London, is home to about 600 North Koreans — making it the largest North Korean defector community outside South Korea.
“Yet many people in the U.K. are not aware of this,” British filmmaker Roxy Rezvany, 27, told The Korea Times in an interview. Rezvany grew up in London, but only discovered the area in 2014.
This is where she met North Korean defector Choi Joong-wha, who came to New Malden in 2007 and lives with his family there. Hearing about the defectors’ stories, she felt she wanted to share this with more people.
“The general understanding of North Korea tends to be based on press coverage, either about the regime’s nuclear program or silly depictions of its leaders,” she said.
“I wanted to provide a humanized portrayal of a North Korean,” Rezvany said, referring to “the deficit of portrayals of North Koreans and information on North Korea in general.”
In her film “Little Pyongyang,” Choi, who was a soldier in the North Korean military, recalls his past in his home country. He shares his childhood memories — about games he played, fish that his parents cooked for their family — and later how he and his family suffered from starvation.
The film shows Choi going about his daily life in New Malden — going to work, spending time with family and having get-togethers with other North Koreans in the community. He talks about the guilt of having left his parents and siblings behind, and despite the suffering he went through in North Korea, his longing to return some day.
The filmmaker says she was able to relate to Choi because of her background — her father is Iranian and her mother Malaysian-Chinese.
“My father escaped political turmoil in Iran and my mother as an immigrant did everything she could for her family, like Choi,” she said.
Rezvany said she also identified with Choi’s children, who know little about their father’s home country because they grew up in London.
Her film earned recognition from several local film festivals. Apart from this, she was happy to find that her film also generated some candid responses from viewers on YouTube. Through her film, she wished to “inspire different mainstream discussions about North Korea.”
Referring to the unfolding process for denuclearization and peace on the Korean Peninsula, Rezvany said: “People need to become invested, even outside of Korea.”
As for her next venture, the filmmaker said she is working on something that will be about second-generation Koreans in the U.K.