Vitaly Mansky, a Russian documentary filmmaker, somehow negotiated his way into making a documentary inside North Korea. He soon discovered that he had no artistic freedom and had to follow a script that his North Korean handlers provided. The handlers gave him the opportunity to create a propaganda film focusing on an 8 year old girl, Zin-mi Lee, who lives in the capital city of Pyongyang with her parents and is about to join the Korean Children's Union on the Day of the Shining Star, the most important national holiday in North Korea, honoring their founder, Kim Il-sung.
Mansky pulled a fast one on his North Korean hosts by continuing to film after the staged scenes had been shot. A crew member kept duplicate copies of memory cards with footage documenting how the North Koreans coached each scene and then smuggled them out of the country. Discovery of Mansky's ruse could have meant death or a very long imprisonment for him and his crew.
The film first provides a glimpse of family life in the hermit kingdom. No effort is spared to present life in North Korea as a continuous idyllic pastime. The apartment is stocked to the brim with banquet-style food and little Zin-mi is coached in numerous takes on how to communicate the nutritional virtues of Kimchi, the Korean national dish. Apparently the eight year old wasn't spontaneous enough delivering the lines during the first few takes. Subtitles reveal that the family might not actually live in the apartment—that adults often live in barracks next to where they work and students in dormitories at their actual schools.
We then move to Zin-mi's school where the teacher attempts to brainwash the students by way of repetitious drills. Children are made to recite the story of how the Japanese collaborated with evil landowners during the Japanese occupation over and over again. Only the great leader Kim Il-sung was there to thwart them. The implication of course is that the Japanese are as bad today as they were then.
Later a retired general relates how evil Americans bombed innocent civilians during the Korean War, including children. Again the focus is on the distant past, with no history of subsequent developments in world affairs. Some unintentional humor is interjected when the handlers overseeing the production interrupt the General and instruct him to congratulate the children for their initial entrance into the Children's Union.
Next up is the pageantry of the Children's Union ceremonies. There is a great deal of synchronized dancing and singing to martial-like music. The spectacle reminds one of Riefenstahl's "Triumph of the Will," commemorating the early rallies in Nazi Germany. The North Korean Children's Union is a worthy successor to the Hitler Youth.
We then cut back to Zin-mi's father who purportedly works as a supervising engineer at a soy milk factory. Mansky relates that Zin-mi mentioned that her father was actually a journalist working for the government. The various outtakes show the North Korean producers exhorting the factory workers to be more cheerful. Again no effort is spared to present an image of complete employee satisfaction and productiveness in the workplace.
The film concludes with the Day of the Shining Star celebrations—another spectacle this time featuring adults. Mansky captures the frightening aspects of the ceremony which is replete with goose-stepping soldiers, again reminiscent of Nazi Germany. After he keeps the camera rolling, the less impressive spectacle of groups of participants being directed how to leave the grounds via loudspeaker, is seen.
Interspersed at certain points in the film are normal scenes of people walking on the street or in train stations. I was shocked at how quiet everyone seemed to be. Is this due to the depression of the general populace or is it based on fear of eavesdropping secret police?
Mansky indicated in interviews that he made the film because he wanted to see how things could have been in Stalinist Russia. But after being in North Korea, he concluded that North Korea was far worse as far as political repression is concerned. At least in Stalinist times, culture was still alive and people still exchanged ideas. Mansky views the North Koreans as "zombies," who have no interest in learning anything outside their narrow-minded culture that features a cult of personality.
After watching this documentary, I concluded that the North Koreans act the way they do as they have a deep fear of humiliation. The possibility of a "loss of face" drives them to present an image to the world that everything there is good. There is the theme that they don't need outside help and it would be too humiliating for them to admit of the deep problems endemic to their society. One must also note the deep-seated sadistic, vengeful impulses that are inculcated into peoples' minds there through propaganda and a manipulative educational system.
Under the Sun feels a little too long and Mansky might have improved his documentary a bit by chopping some of the scenes involving garish spectacle. After a while, some of that propaganda stuff gets a bit overbearing. Still, Mansky has risked life and limb to bring us a truly chilling state of affairs which is North Korea today.
Mansky pulled a fast one on his North Korean hosts by continuing to film after the staged scenes had been shot. A crew member kept duplicate copies of memory cards with footage documenting how the North Koreans coached each scene and then smuggled them out of the country. Discovery of Mansky's ruse could have meant death or a very long imprisonment for him and his crew.
The film first provides a glimpse of family life in the hermit kingdom. No effort is spared to present life in North Korea as a continuous idyllic pastime. The apartment is stocked to the brim with banquet-style food and little Zin-mi is coached in numerous takes on how to communicate the nutritional virtues of Kimchi, the Korean national dish. Apparently the eight year old wasn't spontaneous enough delivering the lines during the first few takes. Subtitles reveal that the family might not actually live in the apartment—that adults often live in barracks next to where they work and students in dormitories at their actual schools.
We then move to Zin-mi's school where the teacher attempts to brainwash the students by way of repetitious drills. Children are made to recite the story of how the Japanese collaborated with evil landowners during the Japanese occupation over and over again. Only the great leader Kim Il-sung was there to thwart them. The implication of course is that the Japanese are as bad today as they were then.
Later a retired general relates how evil Americans bombed innocent civilians during the Korean War, including children. Again the focus is on the distant past, with no history of subsequent developments in world affairs. Some unintentional humor is interjected when the handlers overseeing the production interrupt the General and instruct him to congratulate the children for their initial entrance into the Children's Union.
Next up is the pageantry of the Children's Union ceremonies. There is a great deal of synchronized dancing and singing to martial-like music. The spectacle reminds one of Riefenstahl's "Triumph of the Will," commemorating the early rallies in Nazi Germany. The North Korean Children's Union is a worthy successor to the Hitler Youth.
We then cut back to Zin-mi's father who purportedly works as a supervising engineer at a soy milk factory. Mansky relates that Zin-mi mentioned that her father was actually a journalist working for the government. The various outtakes show the North Korean producers exhorting the factory workers to be more cheerful. Again no effort is spared to present an image of complete employee satisfaction and productiveness in the workplace.
The film concludes with the Day of the Shining Star celebrations—another spectacle this time featuring adults. Mansky captures the frightening aspects of the ceremony which is replete with goose-stepping soldiers, again reminiscent of Nazi Germany. After he keeps the camera rolling, the less impressive spectacle of groups of participants being directed how to leave the grounds via loudspeaker, is seen.
Interspersed at certain points in the film are normal scenes of people walking on the street or in train stations. I was shocked at how quiet everyone seemed to be. Is this due to the depression of the general populace or is it based on fear of eavesdropping secret police?
Mansky indicated in interviews that he made the film because he wanted to see how things could have been in Stalinist Russia. But after being in North Korea, he concluded that North Korea was far worse as far as political repression is concerned. At least in Stalinist times, culture was still alive and people still exchanged ideas. Mansky views the North Koreans as "zombies," who have no interest in learning anything outside their narrow-minded culture that features a cult of personality.
After watching this documentary, I concluded that the North Koreans act the way they do as they have a deep fear of humiliation. The possibility of a "loss of face" drives them to present an image to the world that everything there is good. There is the theme that they don't need outside help and it would be too humiliating for them to admit of the deep problems endemic to their society. One must also note the deep-seated sadistic, vengeful impulses that are inculcated into peoples' minds there through propaganda and a manipulative educational system.
Under the Sun feels a little too long and Mansky might have improved his documentary a bit by chopping some of the scenes involving garish spectacle. After a while, some of that propaganda stuff gets a bit overbearing. Still, Mansky has risked life and limb to bring us a truly chilling state of affairs which is North Korea today.