Crossing the Line (film)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Crossing the Line (Korean: 푸른 눈의 평양시민, A blue eyed PyongYang Citizen in South Korea) is a 2006 British documentary film by Daniel Gordon and Nicholas Bonner.

The film is about US Army defector James Joseph Dresnok, who defected to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) on August 15, 1962. The film was directed and produced by British filmmakers Daniel Gordon and Nicholas Bonner, and was shown at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. The film, which was narrated by actor Christian Slater, was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the festival.

The film was first screened in 2007 on the BBC. The film centred around Dresnok's history, highlighting his insecurity with America, particularly his desertion in 1962 to the DPRK. It also showed Dresnok in the present day, around Pyongyang (where he now lives), and interacting with his North Korean friends. Dresnok spoke exclusively to the filmmakers about his feelings about his childhood, his desertion from the United States Army, living in a country completely foreign and even hostile to his own, and his wife and children.

Dresnok is also shown with fellow defectors, including Charles Robert Jenkins, who actually returned to Japan to be with his wife, Hitomi Soga, while filming was taking place. Dresnok felt hurt and angry by Jenkins, and he rebuffed the allegiations of physical abuse Jenkins had been quoted as saying in the press.

Towards the end of the film, a North Korean doctor discloses to the BBC that Dresnok is in failing health, mainly due to heavy drinking and smoking.