The documentary The Lovers and the Despot recounts one of the strangest chapters in the ongoing war between North and South Korea: the 1978 kidnapping of beloved South Korean actress Choi Eun-hee and her ex-husband filmmaker, Shin Sang-ok, by North Korean agents. The reason? To fulfill the movie-obsessed North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il's ambitions of creating Asia's best film studio.

Read the full review. by Kathleen Richards