Under the Sun (2015)

This is a documentary that sheds an unflattering light on the propaganda machine within the hermit kingdom known as North Korea. It's safe to wager that Russian filmmaker Vitaliy Manskiy didn't tell DPRK officials of his plans ahead of time.To the North Korean government, the premise of the documentary is to follow an ideal family as their 8-year-old daughter, Lee Zin-mi, prepares to join the Children's Union (run by the Workers' Party) on the Day of the Shining Star (that's a fancy term for the North's "founder", Kim Jong-il's birthday). It's a great idea for a propaganda film! Anything that spews respect and admiration for the Great Leader will go over well in North Korea. Not to mention the reassurance and comfort the citizens will feel knowing how great and wonderful and protective Big Brother is.What we end up seeing, however, is less propaganda and more how a propaganda film is made and that's not exactly favorable to the regime. The family patriarch, whose name we never do learn, is a print journalist, but that doesn't fit with the filmmaker's (government handlers') vision. For this "documentary", Zin-mi's father is an engineer in a garment factory. The reason for this sudden change of career becomes rather evident a little later during a ridiculously staged event. Mother works at a soy milk factory, an "essential job" that contributes to the excellent health of her family and friends. "Workshop" as the Handler likes to correct, "Not a factory." And it's not friend, it's Comrade because "it sounds better." It doesn't take too long to see where this film is going. Manskiy's handlers have scripted nearly every move the camera makes, and every word spoken.The handlers are master exploiters, and the exploited are terrified. You can see it in their expressions and in their actions. If this were a movie you'd be laughing at the horrible acting. But this isn't acting, it's real. Frighteningly real. It's what happens after the camera supposedly stops rolling that makes this documentary. Manskiy dutifully films the action his handlers have scripted, almost as if he acquiesced to his role of propaganda cameraman. Unbeknownst to his handlers though, it is them who will be the stars of this film because the camera continues to record long after they believe it to be off. The manipulator becomes the manipulated.TWO things you'll LIKE about "Under the Sun": 1) You'll learn a few things about North Korea, and you'll be thankful you don't live there. 2) There is no narrator per se, but there is some written text that appears on the screen every so often that further analyzes (albeit subjectively) a scene. There is English subtitles for spoken dialogue. It's important to listen (read) to what is being said. There's a particularly heart-wrenching scene where Manskiy, who is filming a crying girl, asks the handler to help her. The response is as disturbing as it is sad.TWO things you'll DISLIKE: 1) Although informative, this film doesn't quite show enough of the neglected underbelly of North Korea. You won't see the starving and emaciated we often hear about. You won't see the abuses or horrifying examples of what happens to those who don't clap loud enough or aren't as effusive as they should be when instructed. Just as well, anyway, because what we do play witness to is troubling enough. 2) Some scenes are a little longer than they should be, almost to the point of being boring.

First, to the people decrying this film as mere propaganda, I say you are either: 1. North Korean agents trying to put a happy face on a horrible situation, or, 2. are just plain dumb. if you honestly think the DPRK is a paradise, I triple dog dare any of you to pack up your Che Guevara t-shirts and move there.If you actually pay attention to the film, you will see many, although sadly, not all, of the people look sad, frightened, beaten down, or all 3.Places like North Korea are true hells on earth and how ANYONE can defend a regime such as this is beyond my ken.

I felt really dirty watching this film. The spectator position the camera angle forced me to take is seriously creepy. The way it constantly zooms in on the faces of those little girls is really unsettling. I get it. It is trying to show how bored and disengaged they look when, for example, they are sitting in the audience of an army general telling his scripted war stories. And how contrived and artificial the whole setup is.But what exactly am I supposed to feel about their situation through this kind of camera works? Pity? Contempt? Anger? Enlightenment? Amusement? Relief over how much better my life has been compared to their "Orwellian" one? I think I'm not the intended audience for this film because I just felt really manipulated.The premise of this film is fairly simple. When you display both what's meant to go on screen and what's meant to be cut out, you demystify the magic of cinema, and reveals the inherently grotesque silliness of the stage directions inhabiting beneath the making of what was meant to be a moving grand narrative.But what does that show us about North Korea? That they are oppressive and "Orwellian"? How? Because their cinematic productions are STAGED? Because their actors have SCRIPTED lines? Because they arbitrarily decide and change what scripted career the girl's father really have? Because they picked for a main character someone who happen to be well-off and went to the "best school"? No. You can do the same thing to the whole genre of "Realty TV" that we consume and get the same contrived, staged, scripted, silly result.If that's all it takes to show how a regime is oppressive, then we need to take a good close look at the same contrived undercurrents feeding into the media we consume and take for granted. There is nothing novel or unique to North Korea about the stage-directions that went into making this film. The only thing that's really different about this film is that it had lazier editing than the "Realty TV" we are used to.Ultimately, this is a feel-good film built on orientalism.We are not compelled to think about the very same contrivances that goes into the backstage of our own media productions. But a full-frontal coverage of the North Korean cinematic backstage is somehow fair game. We are not meant to question this. I have learned nothing about the lived realities attendant to the citizens of this country by the end of this film, but I was unwittingly fed copious amount of resources to help me exoticize and fetishize this country and its people.And that seem to be what this film offers. It's not informative of its very subject-matter by any stretch of the imagination. But it does let us have a good laugh about it, all the while we pretend this is somehow radically different from our own media realities.

This European documentary about North Korea has a Czech title--V paprscích slunce--translated into English as Under the Sun (2015). (Google Translate says The Rays of the Sun, which I think works better.) It was written and directed by Vitaly Mansky, who is Ukrainian.The film was made in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), which we call North Korea. Somehow, director Mansky got permission--or was asked--to film a "documentary" about a typical family in Pyongyang. The star is a young girl, Lee Zin-Mi.What the filmmakers tell us in text on the screen is that the "documentary" they were making was totally artificial. Their North Korean handlers rehearsed every scene, and had no qualms about total fabrication of plot. (As just one example, Lee Zin-Mi's father is not an engineer. However, for the "documentary," he is an engineer who consults with workers at a clothing factory to help them increase their production.)What the North Koreans didn't know--or didn't understand--was that director Mansky kept the camera rolling continually. We hear and see the North Koreans telling people what to say and do, and then we watch the scene when the people say it and do it. Sometimes we watch the scene twice, because the North Korean handlers don't like the way it turned out the first time. So, this really is a documentary, but it's a documentary about making a false documentary.What stands out in every scene is that the whole city revolves around endless praise for the late Kim Jong-il, who was the supreme leader of the North Korea from 1994 to 2011. Now, along with praise of Kim Jong-Il, we hear continuous praise of Kim Jong-un, his son.Kim Jong-un holds the titles of Chairman of the Workers' Party of Korea, Chairman of the Central Military Commission, Chairman of the National Defense Commission, Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army, and presidium member of the Politburo of the Workers' Party of Korea. Kim was promoted to the rank of Marshal of North Korea in the Korean People's Army on 18 July 2012, consolidating his position as the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces. (All this from Wikipedia.)Poor Lee Zin-Mi has the same fate as all of her friends--a life where she participates in ceaseless devotion to Kim Jong-Il and Kim Jong-un. It's hard to tell whether she obtained any special rewards for starring in the documentary. Nothing is real, so nothing on screen can be trusted.Actually, that's not true. Twice Zin-Mi breaks into tears. No one comforts her--they basically suggest that she stop crying so they can continue filming. The documentary may be false, but the tears are real.We saw this movie at the excellent Little Theatre in Rochester, NY. On the small screen you'll miss some of the amazing pageantry that surrounds praise of Kim Jong-un. However, it will work well enough.