Movie buff and communist leader Kim Jong-Il made history this holiday season by allowing Western-made film “Bend It Like Beckham” to broadcast on North Korean television.
Kim Jong-Il famously loves movies. He purportedly owns more than 20,000 DVDs and is a great fan of Elizabeth Taylor. He also famously loves filmmakers—he once kidnapped South Korean director Shin Sang-ok to direct his propaganda films.
Still, ”Bend It Like Beckham” is an unexpected choice for North Korea‘s first-ever Western-world TV broadcast—one that makes Kim Jong-Il seem almost sane and compromising.
The film tells the story of an 18 year-old orthodox Sikh Jesminder living in England. Jesminder is an excellent soccer player, loves David Beckham and hangs with Keira Knightly, who wears a sports bra for most of the movie and makes kissy face with Jonathan Rhys Meyers, all while defying her parents to follow her dream of being a professional soccer player.
It’s a heartwarming story about the generational challenges inherent in East/West multi-cultural communities, and because of this, it sounds like the kind of movie Kim Jong-Il would want to obliterate.
But nope—the film lover gave a big thumbs up to “Bend It Like Beckham.” The British ambassador to South Korea, Martin Uden, Tweeted to confirm that the film was played in North Korea. NME reported that a message ran during the broadcast, saying it marked “the 10th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between Britain and North Korea.”
