Pyongyang threatens Berlinale
January 23, 2015
The director of the annual German Berlinale film festival, Dieter Kosslick, had something of an unexpected appointment with North Korea's ambassador to Berlin on Thursday evening. After his ad-hoc talks with Si Hong Ri, Kosslick told reporters on Friday that he had cleared up a misunderstanding over Sony's film "The Interview," which Pyongyang seemed to think would be aired at the Berlinale.
The slapstick comedy about a fictitious plot to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is rather a far cry from the high-brow, artistic cinema usually favored at the somewhat niche Berlinale.
Festival director Kosslick said that screening the film "was never planned, and the film was never offered to us by Sony." He added that Sony had never even offered to show the film at the event, calling the situation a "misunderstanding."
Berlinale spokeswoman Frauke Greiner told a Berlin public radio station (RBB) on Friday that the threat had been a result of a misunderstanding: The Berlinale's February 5 opening night happened to coincide with the German cinema release date for Sony's contentious comedy.
KCNA's 'merciless punishment' off table
A typically flowery, and fiery, article on North Korea's English-language state news agency KCNA prompted the Berlinale's swift move to calm the waters.
After accusing Germany of being an accomplice to a hostile US act against North Korea, Pyongyang had issued threats of "merciless punishment" if the curators in Berlin added Sony's film to the list of films to be shown at the festival, founded in 1951.
"The US and its vassal forces are becoming desperate in their moves to dare hurt the dignity of the supreme leadership of the DPRK," read a statement on the website of North Korea's news agency KCNA. "DPRK" refers to North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
"According to a report, the U.S. recently presented to the Berlin international film festival the ill-famed and undesirable movie The Interview slandering the DPRK and fanning up terrorism."
Row over film
The Interview, a satire film which includes a CIA plot to assassinate the leadership of North Korea, caused an uproar in Pyongyang and lead first to the cancellation of the film's premiere, and later, to a delayed first screening.
The film was made by Sony Pictures, which was hacked in November. US intelligence agencies insist the hacking was carried out on North Korean soil. In the cyber attack, hackers leaked thousands of internal and private company documents.
Pyongyang condemned the movie before its release and warned the US not to show it at all. The row increased tension in already fraught US-North Korean relations. At the end of last year, the regime accused US President Barack Obama of encouraging the release of the film and therefore likened him to a "monkey."
Sony reported record earnings for the December 25 US release of the film in cinemas and online, a week later than initially planned.
sb/msh (dpa)