10 Most Fascinating Films Produced By Brutal Governments

10. Comrade Kim Goes Flying

This is the most recent entry on the list and probably the most bizarre. Comrade Kim Goes Flying is a joint British-Belgian-North Korean produced Rom-Com made in 2012.  Yeah, take a moment to soak that sentence in before you shoot over to Amazon to buy ten copies of the Blu-ray. 

The film follows Comrade Kim Yong Mi, a North Korean coal miner who dreams of becoming a trapeze artist. Kim pursues her acrobatic dream even in the face of opposition from famed acrobat Pak Jang Phil in a movie described by its British co-director as a a "girl-power fairy tale about dreaming to fly". The film went down a storm in the secretive, repressive Stalinist state itself and apparently trapeze artist turned actor Han Jong-sim became an instant sensation.

Co-director Nicholas Bonner, who had more than a decade’s experience exploring and documenting life in North Korea, claimed he was inspired by, of all things, girl-power football film Bend It Like Beckham. 

The film payed at both the Toronto Film Festival and a South Korean Film Festival and when it played in the United States in 2013 it was warmly received by The Wall Street Journal.