Yang Yonghi, the Japan-born Korean filmmaker of "Our Homeland" who is living in Japan with three brothers in North Korea, has always been confused about her identity.
"I'm a South Korean citizen born in Japan but grew up being educated to call North Korea my 'fatherland' although I have never lived in the country," Yang said in a joint interview with Yonhap News Agency and a dozen other news media on Saturday.
She said she came to be allergic to such words as "fatherland" and "motherland" because she was always told to be loyal to North Korea whenever she visited the country.
Yang belongs to the ethnic Korean minority community in Japan, many of them descendants of Koreans brought there during Japan's 1910-1945 colonial rule of Korea and who have suffered social discrimination for decades since then.
The community is divided into two groups -- one loyal to North Korea and another close to South Korea.
And her three brothers are among the estimated 90,000 people who were repatriated to North Korea under a project initiated by the pro-Pyongyang association of Korean residents in Japan from the late 1950s to early 1980s.
The director said her first feature film "Our Homeland" is based on her own experience of a tearful reunion with one of the brothers named Seong-ho who returned to Japan 25 years after leaving for North Korea for a temporary three-month visit to get medical treatment for a brain tumor.
The movie, premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival, was recently chosen to represent Japan in the Foreign Language Film section of this year's Academy Awards.
It was debuted in South Korea at the ongoing Busan International Film Festival after opening in Japan in early August.
"The biggest tragedy of the people who moved to North Korea is that they now have no choice but to stay," Yang said.
She said she does not blame Pyongyang for her family's tragedy, but just wanted to let the world know about these people.
Yang previously directed two documentary films "Dear Pyongyang" (2005) and "Sona, the Other Myself" (2009), both about her family living separately in Japan and North Korea.
Yang said she is still afraid for her brothers' safety after filming the two documentaries over the past 15 years, but will continue to make films about her family. (Yonhap)
