North Korea is a long-running punch line in American pop culture. The 2004 comedy “Team America: World Police,” created by writers for “South Park,” depicts Kim Jong-il as an alien cockroach. The comedian Margaret Cho received an Emmy nomination for her portrayal of the dictator on the NBC comedy “30 Rock.” Kim Jong-un, with his chubby baby face and his fondness for cheese and basketball, has become an easy target on “Saturday Night Live,” “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart” and “The Colbert Report.”

“North Korea embodies all the stereotypes of imagery from the Cold War, but in an absurd way, so we can poke fun at it in a way that we couldn’t poke fun at the Soviet Union or Communist China,” said Charles Armstrong, a Columbia University professor who specializes in Korean history. “We don’t take North Korea seriously enough.”

For those still baffled over how a lowbrow comedy could set off such a strange chain of events, Mr. Fischer’s book offers insights into why the North Korean leaders take film so seriously. In the course of his research, Mr. Fischer, a filmmaker who grew up in Paris and now lives in London and Toronto, watched around 40 North Korean films, including Kim Jong-il’s productions “Sea of Blood” and “Flower Girl.” Mr. Fischer spent a week in North Korea as a tourist and visited the country’s film studios, which scaled back their productions during the economic crisis and famine in the 1990s. Though the country has continued to produce films, even gaining international attention with movies like “The Schoolgirl’s Diary,” the focus has shifted to less expensive productions like documentaries and animated films, Mr. Fischer said.

The North Korean government has used movies to shape the population’s perception of their leadership as godlike and benevolent, while foreigners, particularly the Japanese and Americans, have been portrayed as murderous threats. Under Kim Jong-il’s leadership, the country’s film studios released hundreds of movies, Mr. Fischer said.

Image North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-il, left, with his son and successor, Kim Jong-un, in 2011. Credit... Korean Central News Agency, via AFP — Getty Images

Movies were so important to Kim Jong-il that he ordered the kidnappings of the South Korean actress and director so that they could upgrade the nation’s film industry. In these nationalistic spectacles, the Supreme Leader was often spoken of but never shown, with the exception of one hagiographic biopic. (The actor who played Kim Il-sung, the country’s founder, was given plastic surgery to resemble the leader, then sent to a concentration camp when the role ended, Mr. Fischer said.) Going to the movies was mandatory for citizens. In villages without movie theaters, films were shown in factories and party offices, and viewers had to attend discussion sessions with party leaders afterward.

The government was able to control the films its citizens saw for decades, but its grip on entertainment has slipped. Possession of unapproved films is a crime punishable by death. Still, citizens risk their lives to access black market DVDs and Hollywood movies smuggled in on USB drives.