The movie house people had nothing but utter contempt for the North Korean diplomats, not only seeing them spending large amounts of German currency on movie rentals while their folks at home where starving but also because they considered the films ordered to be an assortment of utter trash. U asked almost exclusively for cheap American action movies of the B-movie variety with an occasional Hong Kong action flic thrown into the mix. However, they needed the extra income to keep their fledgling small theater chain alive. So they did their best to get U his film prints; always in the professional 35mm screening format (as U demanded) and quickly. They told the distributors that they would screen the titles in their own theaters, but after receiving the prints handed them over to U. U kept the films for a week or two, returned them, and, most importantly, he paid his dues very quickly. The theater folks then paid the distributors and kept a fair share of U’s payment for their own purposes.
But it did not always work out that easily. Some of the films U ordered simply were not available on the German distribution market. What to do? The Berlin cinema people, after making some effort to locate the films, always told U to “forget it – we can’t get you that film”. That did not stop U, though. He would ask for the same film on all the following visits over and over again…to no avail, of course.
U had to look for alternative sources to extend his searches. In early 1999, he found … me. At that time, I was preparing to show a series of North Korean films in Europe, and the Berlin movie theater had paved my way to so doing by introducing me to U, who in turn introduced me to Paek Chol Un, the Vice General Director of the Pyongyang-based Korea Film Export & Import Corporation, while he was on a visit to the Berlin Film Festival. Paek in turn gave me the chance to realize my film show tour. Well, that’s another story.
In the beginning, my meetings with U were very brief, few and far between and dealt with only one subject – the North Korean films I was going to show and the preparations for my trip to Pyongyang to select those films. But once the preparations drew closer and practical matters like paying shipping fees for my North Korean program (which was supposed to be shipped from Pyongyang to U) became pressing, I would more and more often head to that gray and virtually pedestrian-free area on the Southern tip of Berlin’s Glinkastrasse where the “Office for the Protection of the Interests of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea” was located. It was housed in the building of the former North Korean embassy to East Germany, a faceless concrete block dating back to the late 1960s. A display in a glass box bolted onto a concrete post next to the metal entrance gate of that small diplomatic compound showed pictures of Pyongyang parades, “Great Leaders” Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong-il, and happily celebrating North Koreans.
After ringing the doorbell, a woman would ask me over the intercom something in Korean, I would tell her that I had an appointment with U and she would open the gate with some remote-control device. It did not take long, though, before I showed up at that gate and I got buzzed in without any questions asked; those receptionists quickly got to know the few regular visitors. Up the concrete steps leading to the second door of the building, opening the old-fashioned East German-style rippled glass door, and once inside it felt like being right in North Korea: a wood-framed reception window, a woman with curly permed hair behind it who spoke only Korean, a red banner with the newest North Korean party slogan above the window, in Korean, of course. I would just say, “U Kun-chol” several times and she would point to a brown leather sofa to wait. U would come after a while, lead me to a room with a big negotiation table, oversized glass ashtrays sitting on top, portraits of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il on the wall, and point one of the leather armchairs out to me and disappear again, looking for an interpreter. Finally succeeding in his search, he would come back and show me a type-written list of movies the theater people could not find. Movies like Jackie Chan’s Police Story, part 1 +2, or the American action picture Airwolf. I was always offered a fair amount of money if I could find the films for U. I ritually asked “What do you need those movies for?” and he would invariably say “For private screenings here in the embassy.” “Alright, will check on them” I would say reluctantly, knowing from the theater people already that those titles were unavailable, and make my exit. I was not very keen to get involved in these deals but I needed U after all to help arranging my shows of North Korean films.
