When filmmaker Colin Offland heard about Dennis Rodman’s Paddy Power-sponsored pilgrimage to North Korea, he fought tooth and nail to be the sole documentarian of the world’s most controversial basketball game. A gift, from ex-NBA star Dennis Rodman to his new, rather unlikely BFF, Kim Jong-un. But not even Offland could not have known what he was signing up for: drunken banquets, minders lurking behind every corner, and pervasive second thoughts. Rodman assembled an all-star team to play against DPRK’s most talented dribblers. However, when the US found out it was to be a birthday gift for their Dear Leader, the teammates became ants under the media’s magnifying glass. So how exactly did Offland hold on during this wild rollercoaster ride through the Hermit Kingdom? Here, the director details how he got involved and how he dealt with Rodman on the bottle.

How did you come to be involved in making this film?

Colin Offland: I went after the opportunity, actually. I’d been in North Korea on holiday 12 months prior to reading the announcement from Paddy Power that they were putting on this event with Dennis Rodman in North Korea. I immediately said to my children that I was going to make a documentary about it, which was a bit ambitious in hindsight considering I’d never made a documentary before!

I made it happen by chasing down everyone I could find out who was involved and telling them that I was the ideal person to document Dennis Rodman’s trip because I’d been to the DPRK before and I knew what it was going to take to make a film like this in that country. Eventually the marketing director of Paddy Power responded to me and the ball was rolling.

How did you initially feel about making a trip to DPRK?

Colin Offland: I was really excited about making the film until the day before we left and the news came out that Kim Jong-un had killed is Uncle (who was a very senior figure at the time.) This was quite unsettling because we had no idea what that meant for the country and how unsettled it might have been. Thankfully, we got a letter from the DPRK Ministry of Sports that assured us of a safe passage as long as we obeyed by their laws.

Were you prepared at all to work with Dennis Rodman?

Colin Offland: Dennis is a massive, overbearing character, I built up trust and respect with him early on. He was protective over his relationship with Kim Jong-un and again, because I’d visited the country before he trusted that I wasn’t out there to do the same kind of documentary that everyone else does when they get cameras into North Korea. After that he let me get on with it and never minded the cameras rolling. I also took his agent’s advice and was never the last person drinking with him in the room because that person doesn’t get to sleep.

Was there anything that got cut from the film?

Colin Offland: Nothing has been cut from the film but the North Koreans would have liked it if I had. I was a little protective over the players and their reputations because the US media went mad at them being there. The banquet dinner was an off-the-scale trip in every way, my head's in my hands now even thinking about it. The officials didn’t want any cameras there in the first place so after the introductions we were told to put them away, we filmed the rest surreptitiously, all I can say was it was an horrendous experience.

The film is quite entertaining, but is there a message that you’d like to get across with it?

Colin Offland: There absolutely isn’t a message in the film. It does raise a number of questions around Dennis’ relationship with Kim Jong-un and whether the event should have happened in the first place, but I’ve done my absolute best to present the story as accurately/fairly as possible and the audience can make up their own minds.

Dennis Rodman’s Big Bang in Pyongyang has its UK debut at East End Film Festival July 5