In 2017, Kim Jong Nam, the half-brother of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, was attacked and murdered by a nerve agent at the International Airport in Malaysia's capital, Kuala Lumpur. Now, American documentary filmmaker Ryan White has created a documentary called 'Assassins', which investigates many aspects related to the murder of Kim Jong Nam.
It is to be noted that Kim Jong Un's half brother was the likely heir of their late father and former North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.
Ryan White’s crime thriller documentary 'Assassins' revolves around the prosecution of the two women accused of the crime, and the mysterious circumstances surrounding the murder.
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Nam was assassinated after being exposed to a VX nerve agent. The movie shows the footage of a woman wrapping her hands around Nam's eyes who died shortly after.
Two women- Indonesian Siti Aisyah and Vietnamese Doan Thi Huong-were charged with poisoning Nam by putting the banned chemical weapon VX on his face.
Defense lawyers maintained they were mere pawns in an assassination conducted by North Korean agents. Moreover, the women maintained that they were part of a reality prank show, and had no knowledge of the plot to assassinate Nam.
Both the women were released from jail. Siti was freed in March 2019 after a Malaysian court dropped charges, and Huong was released the following day after pleading to a lesser charge of causing harm using dangerous means.
The film also deals with the threat King Jong-un faced from his half brother, in his ascent to power.
The filmmaker said to Rolling Stones that the story of Kim Jon Un's brother was swept aside as Trump's ascent to the Presidency dominated the headlines.
“Trump was just taking office when Kim Jong-Nam was assassinated in 2017,” White tells Rolling Stone. “So, this murder was a top story for a couple of days, but then it basically disappeared as Trump dominated the airwaves. Almost everybody I talk to remembers the headline, but few people know what happened after or what the truth is.” Ryan said in an interview with Rolling Stones.
He further revealed that he hadn't met the women who were accused of killing him as they were facing a trial. At one point of time the women were facing mandatory death penalty in Malaysia.
“I also wasn’t able to directly access the women for the majority of the filmmaking process, because they were in prison,” he continues. “I’d see them every day on their way into trial, handcuffed and surrounded by machine guns, but it was the first time I’d made a film about people I hadn’t met.” White told Rolling Stones.
He also said that stakes were high in the making of the film terming it 'life-or-death'.
Ryan White spent 2-1/2 years investigating the case for 'Assassins'.
