"The Other Side of the Mountain." Courtesy of UMFF

By Jung Da-min

Five North Korean movies about the country's nature and people will be screened at the Ulju Mountain Film Festival (UMFF) on Friday to Tuesday.

A romance movie titled "The Other Side of the Mountain (2012)," which deals with inter-Korean separated families, will screened on Saturday at 4 p.m. and next Monday at 10 a.m.

The other four films are short North Korean animations with themes about nature ― "Ant rolled Korean Melon (1983)", "A Peasant and a Brindled Dog (1999)", "Potato arrived in Hyanggi-Gol (2000)" and "A Present from Old Tree (2007)".

They will be presented as a combined film next Tuesday from 1 p.m.

Korean-American Joon Bai, writer of "The Other Side of the Mountain," will visit the film festival to meet audience. Bai was born in the north-eastern border area of the North, but moved to the South during the Korean War.

He went to the U.S. in 1959 and has since lived there as a businessman.

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The U.S-North Korean collaboration movie deals with South Korean soldier Ri Il-gyu's story of falling in love with North Korean nurse Song Son-ah during the Korean War. North Korean Jang In-hak directed the film.

"The Other Side of the Mountain." Courtesy of UMFF

Filmed in the North featuring North Korean actors and actresses, the movie presents a natural view of the North Korean mountains.

"People often have prejudice that North Korean movies include propaganda messages, but the North Korean movies selected for showing at the festival are about nature, which fits the theme of Ulju Mountain Film Festival," said UMFF programmer Jinna Lee.

"The romance movie is set in the mountains in the North and the animations selected convey ideas such as 'knowledge is power' or 'love nature.'"

Moviegoers can pre-register on the UMFF website (http://umff.kr/eng/). On-site registration will be open from Friday.

"Ant Rolled Korean Melon." Courtesy of UMFF

"A Peasant and a Brindled Dog." Courtesy of UMFF

"Potato Arrived in Hyanggi-Gol". Courtesy of UMFF

"A Present from Old Tree." Courtesy of UMFF