In the aftermath of the Korean War, ambitious young film director Shin Sang-ok and emerging talent Choi Eun-hee enter into a glamorous romance and rise to the very top of South Korean society.
They were the Brangelina of their time. But their movie idol celebrity is tarnished after Shin is accused for having a torrid affair creating a national scandal. It is so scandalous that then South Korean President (also military general and overall dictator) Park Chung-hee cuts short the director’s career, banning him from working in the film industry.
Unable to reconcile, Choi and Shin divorce. Then their lives takes a bizarre turn.
Choi is kidnapped by the soon-to-be “Dear Leader” and movie obsessive, Kim Jong-il of North Korea, who imprisons her in his summerhouse. Director Shin desperately searches for his ex-wife, but is abducted and thrown into a North Korean concentration camp.
Kept apart for five grueling years, they are finally reunited by Kim, who anoints them his very own puppet filmmakers. Strangely (as if this true story can’t get stranger enough), this becomes a second chance for the former lovers to start anew, in both their film careers and in their relationship.
Realizing that escape from North Korea itself is impossible, only production trips to the far-flung corners of the “Iron Curtain” offer them hope. They must first gain Kim’s trust, then find a way to elude their everyday “handlers/agent minders. Any false move or allusion to escape would be a sign of treason and mean certain death.
The Lovers and the Despot is a film noir of the most twisted order told through incredible archive footage of the era that even includes rare secret audio recordings of the North Korean dictator discussing his plot for a cinematic paradise.
The tapes deliver a chilling yet fascinating glimpse into the psychology of the North Korean dictatorship and what happens when art, love, and megalomania intersect in a one-of-a-kind, sweeping story that is truly stranger than fiction.