Hitch has well said that the Christian Haven can be found in North Korea. The road filled with buses, but no personal car and the micro truck shouting from the loudspeakers an Ode to the leading Gods.Lately I have seen numerous documentaries filmed in North Korea by all sort of white clowns that needed to compensate the lack of skills with something catchy, something unusual. So far the best was one made by the team at Vice in which the team actually tried to go outside the marked path. Most were more than happy to engorge in the protocol food and drink, than whip out some "life is bad" text.This one is different. The director has certainly lived all this crap somewhere in the Soviet Union and he knows where to look. Sadly the frames are hard to decode. Happily this is a document and could be seen many years after the fall of North Korea. Take the school. This is no regular school. This is a school for the Nomenklatura. One sees the segregated group of girls (Christianity at its best) in school uniforms. He films the fingernails "cut this morning", yet he catches a glimpse of the bottom half. And some of the girls are not wearing regular school trousers, but denim. And that is the ultimate piece of clothing. It is hard to see, because they were specially chosen to blend it with the uniforms.Or there is the scene with the food set for all the foreigners to see that the malnourished people have everything their heart's desires. Yet the girl is playing with the food. She knows she is not allowed to eat, but she can't help herself from touching the tasty food. And later there are the State employees searching around the room, the room with the portraits of the local Gods. It is hard to notice, but through the frames the fancy food is not touched by the family. Or how the family is lightly dressed, yet the production team has the down coats they use outside.Or the bus from the beginning. A nice, regular bus. With people getting on. Only someone cries Action! It is not a regular bus. It is one of the better buses brought in from the party depots to show how good the life can be for the people. The bus makes a terrible noise. Because even the higher ups do not have the usual comfort of the West. But still, this is not what the regular people are using.In short, hard to decode, but the best documentary on North Korea so far. By far.Contact me with Questions, Comments or Suggestions ryitfork @ bitmail.ch

This doc was to show the a girl(who BTW was SO adorable) joining the workers party. But, I feel the directors were playing with fire by how they made the film. We all know and are aware that if something is coming out of the DPRK then it is staged and scripted. This filmmaker went to the extreme and video taped footage showing that and smuggled it out of the country. Yes, it did call them on their BS but at what cost? Who knows what happened to every North Korean involved? Those minders and their families? Those people are probably dead or close to death in some work camp. This is very repetitive and got kind of boring after awhile. Due to super long shots of people just walking and stunned to see a camera and song after song of how amazing their leader is. So this is very much a "get the story no matter what the cost" documentary. I will say though during one of the songs they flash a pic of Kim Jung-Il in the background and for a split second I thought it was a pic of the Grim Reaper a little ironic for this Doc and it's subject matter.

A foreign crew is somehow given permission to shoot in North Korea. The term "documentary" is a bit far-fetch here, since everything is actually staged by an escort crew that supervises, scripts, directs and rehearses every scene being filmed.If you want to see what George Orwell's NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR would look like if it became real life, watch this documentary.Watching it, I got strong vibes of movies such as EQUILIBRIUM, METROPOLIS, SLEEPER and THE PRISONER. Basically, every movie which depicts life in a state of dictatorship becomes a reality here and Orwell's book is the bible. All the elements from his book can be found here: Pictures of the leader at every corner, a constant state of war with military at every corner and as the center of every class in school, brainwashing the minds of people since an early age and basically turning them into human robots that would obey everything they are being told to do and learning how to hate the Japanese and Americans, production is always told to be getting "more efficient", TV constantly broadcasts programs about the leader, his military and war, and you hardly see anyone smiling.This is life in a constant state of fear and it's a living nightmare.The movie is far from perfect – many scenes are way too long and repetitive, tighter editing could have made wonders here – but its value lies in the achievement of showing a surreal regime that is almost impossible to believe that still exists in the 21st century and showing how "reality" can easily be fabricated.Good cinematography and excellent musical cues by Karlis Auzans.6.5/10 Highly recommended

Russian director Vitaly Mansky spent almost a year in Pyongyang shooting a propaganda film about an 8-year-old girl's entry into the Children's Union, the political organization that every NK kid must join. He knew that in the land of Kim Il-sung, Kim Jong-il and now Kim Jong-un he would be intensely 'supervised' in every respect; not allowed to film anything on his own; not permitted to talk to the actors; and be required to use the script the North Koreans provided. But his cameras each had two digital recording cards so he could give one, containing 'official' footage, to his bosses while keeping the cameras rolling to surreptitiously record forbidden images. Thus we see stage-managers staging everything, constantly appearing from the wings to coach the actors (usually to be more joyful—and patriotic); other images betray the weight of oppression: the morning public exercises (instructions blare from loudspeakers in the public square); reflexive and repetitive statements by everyone fulsomely praising the Kim dynasty (for heroism, self- sacrifice, generosity, loving care, ad infinitum/nauseam); a decorated Korean War vet (at least three dozen gigantic medals on his tunic) meekly and bewilderedly submitting to the stage-managers' instructions on what to say and how to say it. And then there's Pyongyang itself, a city of three million—but where are all the people? You hardly see them except in singing, forced-smiling packs of school kids, who march or run rather than walk to endless classes on the greatness of the Kims. The city is not only colorless but featureless: no fast food joints, no small businesses, no billboards, no neon, no bustle. Everything is vast, the favorite dimension of tyrants: the squares, the public buildings, the towering bronzes of the holy Kims. A telling shot is of an enormous expanse of asphalt that can be recognized as an intersection only because in its middle stands a lone traffic cop, forlornly waiting for traffic to direct. No one smiles save on command; no one speaks save to praise the 'Generalissimo' or the 'Respected Leader,' and they know absolutely nothing about the world outside North Korea. The film closes with the little girl, Zin-mi, and the scene is heart-breaking as it is horrifying. A teacher frets at her emotionless blank stare and repeatedly insists that she be happy say what makes her happy. Zin-mi is vaguely aware that SOMETHING is required of her but she's not sure how to be happy for the teacher. Finally, after more urging, she reaches desperately into her memory and begins to dully recite the oath she took when joining the Children's Union. It is shattering to realize that you have just watched an eight-year-old child turned into a robot.