In order to make this movie director Sung Hyung Cho had to give back her South-Korean citizenship. It was not only that she was then able to enter North Korea and get a shooting permission there. She could also have gotten problems from the South-Korean side. Traveling to the north is regarded as parricide for a citizen of South Korea and she could have got arrested when reentering South Korea while still owning this passport. Sung Hyung Cho took the German citizenship instead, she lives in Germany since studying there.