Tre amori nordcoreani. Sentimento, sessualità e ideologia nel cinema di Kim Jong Il

Since the 1960s, under the guidance of the future leader Kim Jong Il, films on socialist reality became es- tablished as one of the core genres of North Korean cinema. Based on the celebration of labour and of economic independence, the genre was subsequently theorized in 1973 by Kim himself in his essay On the Art of Cinema, an actual reference point for North Korean directors. This paper will examine, through a comparative analysis, three works which can be considered emblematic of the average production of North Korean cinema, and especially of the previously mentioned “films on socialist reality”. In all of them, the theme of love between a man and a woman is treated in an ideological fashion and bent to a rigid hierarchy, on the top of which is invariably placed the love for the Country and for the Supreme Leader.