Giant Bunnies Hit Silver Screen

Giant bunnies overran the 2008 Berlin Film Festival, reports Der Spiegel—in the form of a 5-minute documentary on the international intrigue that ensued when a German rabbit breeder sent a dozen of his 20-pounders to North Korea to be bred to help alleviate hunger. Instead, they met a tragic end as part of a birthday feast for playboy-dictator Kim Jong Il.

American filmmaker Johan Onah spent just 4 hours with breeder Karl Szmolinsky, discussing the fall of the Berlin Wall, the ill-fated Korean program, and harassing phone calls from animal rights activists. Szmolinsky, who breeds rabbits the size of small dogs in his spare time, says the 12 the North Koreans ate could have produced 60 more a year, and each could have fed eight people. (More Berlin Film Festival stories.)