'Kenyan police asked if my husband was a sorcerer'

When four years ago film-maker Ryan White heard about the airport assassination of Kim Jong-nam he knew the story was extraordinary but he had no intention of turning it into a film. Months later he thought again - plunging him into a dark world of intelligence operatives and geopolitics of which he knew almost nothing.
White has been making documentaries for more than a decade. Probably the best-known is The Case Against 8, about the legal fight for gay marriage in California.
"Then in 2017 we all registered how bizarre the Kim Jong-nam story was," he says. "The weird story of the half-brother of the North Korean leader being killed at Kuala Lumpur airport by women who smear him with a lethal nerve agent - and then claim it had been a prank for reality TV.
"And I'd love to say that instantly I knew there was a film in it. But really I didn't."
Kim, aged 45, died of contact with VX nerve agent in Malaysia even before he reached hospital. Within a couple of days two women were arrested for his murder. Doan Thi Huong was 28 and from Vietnam and Siti Aisyah was a 25 year-old Indonesian.
Kim Jong-nam had not been in favour with his half-brother Kim Jong-un, who had been supreme leader of North Korea since 2011. For some years he lived in exile in Macau and the new documentary includes file footage of Kim Jong-nam speaking on camera.
But White only started to perceive the story as a film project after an approach by journalist Doug Bock Clark.
"Doug Clark said he was writing a deep-dive investigative piece for GQ magazine. He told me there was a lot more to say than had ever hit the headlines - the timing close to the Trump inauguration had meant that Americans didn't really follow the story for very long.
"Doug explained the two women in Malaysia were to go on trial with a mandatory death penalty if they were found guilty. They were sticking to their story about being set up to believe they were in a reality TV show when they smeared Kim.
Read the story here. : SLOT

When four years ago film-maker Ryan White heard about the airport assassination of Kim Jong-nam he knew the story was extraordinary but he had no intention of turning it into a film. Months later he thought again - plunging him into a dark world of intelligence operatives and geopolitics of which he knew almost nothing.
White has been making documentaries for more than a decade. Probably the best-known is The Case Against 8, about the legal fight for gay marriage in California.
"Then in 2017 we all registered how bizarre the Kim Jong-nam story was," he says. "The weird story of the half-brother of the North Korean leader being killed at Kuala Lumpur airport by women who smear him with a lethal nerve agent - and then claim it had been a prank for reality TV.
"And I'd love to say that instantly I knew there was a film in it. But really I didn't."
Kim, aged 45, died of contact with VX nerve agent in Malaysia even before he reached hospital. Within a couple of days two women were arrested for his murder. Doan Thi Huong was 28 and from Vietnam and Siti Aisyah was a 25 year-old Indonesian.
Kim Jong-nam had not been in favour with his half-brother Kim Jong-un, who had been supreme leader of North Korea since 2011. For some years he lived in exile in Macau and the new documentary includes file footage of Kim Jong-nam speaking on camera.
But White only started to perceive the story as a film project after an approach by journalist Doug Bock Clark.
"Doug Clark said he was writing a deep-dive investigative piece for GQ magazine. He told me there was a lot more to say than had ever hit the headlines - the timing close to the Trump inauguration had meant that Americans didn't really follow the story for very long.
"Doug explained the two women in Malaysia were to go on trial with a mandatory death penalty if they were found guilty. They were sticking to their story about being set up to believe they were in a reality TV show when they smeared Kim.
Read the story here. : SLOT