Lovers and the Despot’: Film couple kidnapped by North Korea Unfolding like a John le Carré thriller, “The Lovers and the Despot” tells the true story of two of South Korea’s brightest filmmaking talents, actress Choi Eun-hee and director Shin Sang-ok, who were kidnapped in 1978 by North Korean agents on the orders of dictator Kim Jong Il and forced to make movies to boost the North Korean film industry. Directors Ross Adam and Robert Cannan’s documentary is told masterfully through archival material, film clips, spot-on re-enactments and interviews with those involved, including Choi herself, her children and U.S.