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Widely regarded as the most important North Korean film ever made, The Flower Girl is a technicolour epic of race, rebellion and revolutionary zeal.
Based on an opera reported to have been written by Kim Il-sung himself and often described as North Korea's Gone with the Wind, The Flower Girl is an anti-feudal period piece set in the late 20s. Along with the four-hour epic Sea of Blood it is part of Kim Jong-il's Immortal Classics project, co-directed by his favourite director Choe Ik-kyu, and was an international breakthrough for DPRK cinema, winning the Prix Special at the 1972 Karlovy Vary Film Festival.
Set against the brutal backdrop of a Japanese-occupied Korea, the films sees Koppun selling flowers to help support her elderly widowed mother and blind younger sister. As the family is pushed closer and closer to breaking point by their evil landlord, Koppun dreams of the return of her brother, and the full force of the Revolutionary Army.
D Choe Ik-kyu, Hak Pak S Kim Il-sung (play) WS Korea Film Export Import Corporation L Korean w/English subtitles TD digibeta/1972