THE 11TH ANNUAL Pusan International Film Festival wrapped up this week after a dramatic start on Oct. 12, right around the time North Korea’s nuke test made its world premiere. Film critics normally don’t get the chance to delve into geopolitics, but that was unavoidable at this year’s PIFF, which included politically-minded films that were disconcertingly on target.

Without question, the hottest ticket in the city of Busan (formerly Pusan, aka “The Hollywood of North East Asia”) was the world premiere of “Crossing the Line,” the third and latest documentary about North Korea by the U.K. team of director Daniel Gordon and producer Nick Bonner. This time, the collaborators (who for some reason have comparatively unfettered access to North Korea) honed in on Americans who have defected to North Korea.

Narrated by noted North Korea watcher, Christian Slater, “Crossing the Line” tells the story of James Joseph Dresnok, a U.S. soldier who 44 years ago, facing a court martial, walked across the Demilitarized Zone that separates North and South Korea. There he joined another defector, Private Larry Abshier. By 1965 two others had followed. The four became propaganda heroes for North Korea, and were often featured in films playing the roles of dumb and/or evil Americans. (Slater makes no reference in the film to his similarly styled career.)

“Little by little,” Dresnok says in the film, “I came to understand the Korean people.” Bestowed with North Korean citizenship in 1974, he eventually married and had three children (by two non-Korean women). Now at 64 and in poor health, Desnok remains in Pyongyang, hopefully still happy with his decision.

Other topical fare included a brilliant retrospective of seven films made during Japan’s colonial rule of Korea. One such film, Shin Sang-ok’s restored “Arch of Chastity” (1962) premiered at the festival. Shin’s life itself was the stuff of movies. In 1978, North Korean agents kidnapped Shin and his wife, actress Choi Eun-hee, and forced them to make propaganda films for the Dear Leader and Aspiring Auteur, Kim Jong-il. Shin and his wife escaped in 1986.

Politics aside, the Pusan International Film festival further solidified its reputation as East Asia’s finest. Filmgoers chose from a rich and varied program that, while international in scope, showcased films from all of Asia. Even Tajikistan’s very funny “To Get to Heaven First You Have to Die” made the trip.

Another crowd-pleaser was “Ten Canoes,” the first Australian production featuring an entirely Aboriginal cast, with most of the dialogue spoken in the native language of Ganalbingu. The film’s buzz grew over the course of the festival making the light comedy a tough ticket by its final screening on Oct. 18.

A surprise festival favorite was the new Lars Von Trier project, “The Boss of it All,” a one-off comedy that the usually dead-serious Von Trier said was to be watched and forgotten. The film, presented in oft-lamented Dogma style, concerns the owner of an IT company who’s trying to sell his company to Icelanders. Unfortunately, the “boss of it all” does not exist at all, and is merely a “guy in America” who answers the occasional email so the owner must enlist an actor of “questionable morals” to stand in as the big boss. The film was a breezy reminder that regardless of what’s happening outside, the theater can still be a haven, a place for a laugh or two.

Okay, now back to reality. •

Aaron Tassano is a freelance writer based in Busan, South Korea. A former Oakland Tribune staff writer, his work has appeared the LA Times, the Denver Post and McSweeneys.com.