Culture 17/02/23 A North Korean woman’s bitter journey - South Korean film-maker Jero Yun follows the tribulations of Mrs. B, a North Korean migrant with

[성기화 요셉]

A North Korean woman’s bitter journey

South Korean film-maker Jero Yun follows the tribulations of Mrs. B, a North Korean migrant with a multiple identity, as she travels through Asia.

Marie Soyeux

February 23, 2017

It was "Mrs. B" who suggested to Jero Yun to make a documentary about her incredible story. / New Story

Mrs. B, The Story of an North Korean woman***

Directed by Jero Yun.

A Franco-Korean documentary – 1 hr 11mns

Jero Yun comes from South Korea. Mrs. B. is from North Korea. He appears as humble and reserved as she is tough and gutsy on the screen. A mutual sympathy draws them to each other, along with the exceptional resilience and independent spirit they both have. 

The two met in China in the wake of the previous feature of the young film-maker, always in search of a Korean identity: Looking for North Koreans (2013).

At the time, Mrs. B. was his go-between during his quest for other North Korean refugees, and it was she who first suggested to him to make a documentary on her incredible story. Having fled North Korea for China, she had planned to work clandestinely. 

However, the smugglers sold her to a Chinese farmer, to whom she later became attached. To take care of the needs of her family back in North Korea, she dabbled in various types of trafficking and saved her money to get her children over to South Korea.

She goes to join them after Jero Yun agrees to follow her. A long, harrowing journey awaits them. They travel all the way through China and Laos to Thailand, from where she goes to South Korea, thanks to an agreement between the two countries.

This is the journey taken by most North Korean migrants fleeing to the South, but that does not make it any less terrible and Mrs. B, together with the film-maker, battles hunger, fear, and dangers.

But the ordeal does not end there. Ten months on, Jero Yun returns to South Korea only to find Mrs. B quite bitter, torn between her Chinese husband, who is unable to join her, and her North Korean children, consumed by a quiet anger.

They feel extremely isolated in this country where hatred of communism has erected invisible barriers. They have now become saeteomin, “new arrivals” – the term the South uses to designate these Northern refugees, whom it views with mistrust.

According to the Ministry of Reunification, 30,000 Northerners have arrived in the South since the peninsula was first divided.

In Mrs. B, Jero Yun knows he is witnessing a tragedy of our era. He has signed off on a documentary like none other, crowned with awards in many festivals, one that is concise and nuanced. 

He has managed to avoid the bitterness of history and to stay clear of caricatures because he himself has crossed many borders in search of others and of himself. 

In 2014 he told La Croix how his departure for Europe at the age of 21 enabled him to overcome a deep-rooted anxiety and spurred him on to soon afterward starting making his courageous films.