Det røde kapel

This Danish documentary about a small performing group's visit to North Korea is described in the blurb as venturing "into territory somewhere between Michael Moore and Borat" but more importantly "bankrolled by Lars von Trier's Zentropa." We're in the realm of von Trier and Jørgen Leth's 'Five Obstructions,' a filmed set of challenges dreamed up by von Trier, except that this time the challenge is to fool a set of North Korean minders and make a film that will show up the dictatorship, right in front of their eyes -- a pretty dangerous Obstruction. The group's visit, filmed all along the way by Mads Brügger's team and with him in charge, is technically a mission of cultural exchange. The North Koreans think it's a chance for manipulation and propaganda about how wonderful the country and its capital Pyonyang and their Dear Leader Kim Jong-il are. For the Danes, it's a chance to show up their hosts for the pawns and robots and fascists they are.

Mads Brügger's secret weapon is half his two-man Red Chapel comedy troupe, made up of young men born in Korea who've lived all their lives in Denmark and think of themselves as Danish, but a little bit Korean. Jacob Nossell is spastic -- the word he uses for himself. He has cerebral palsy, walks clumsily, and when he speaks, it sounds like its coming out of a wind tunnel full of laughing gas.

The thing about Jacob is that he makes the North Koreans profoundly uncomfortable. There are no handicapped people on view in the whole country -- or at least not in Pyonyang. But Jacob, though handicapped, is cute and endearing; he smiles a lot and looks kind of hip; he has spiky hair. He's also very outspoken. You can also feel how Danish Jacob and Simon are, though that is one of many things the North Koreans don't want to see. In their eagerness to fool others, they themselves are easily fooled. The visitors' chief minder, who is with them every step of the way and acts as their translator, Mrs Pak, falls totally in love with Jacob, in a motherly way, perhaps initially out of pity. She hugs him and practically drools over him and tells him she wishes he were her son. The twist, one of several, is that Jacob is initially repelled but ultimately touched by this.

Jacob's spastic way of talking is so distorted, nobody in North Korea can understand him when he speaks Danish, so he has a secret language the group and we can understand and the North Koreans cannot. When he looks away from Mrs. Pak and says "I feel like I'm being smothered -- I can't breathe!" she has no idea what he's saying.

Jacob's partner is the chubby Simon Jul Jørgensen. Simon aims to perform an acoustic rendition of Oasis's "Wonderwall" accompanied by a choir of Korean schoolgirls, and Jacob, who uses a wheelchair for longer walks, is to accompany him. Simon is ostensibly the leader of the Red Chapel comedy group, but it is Jacob who matters here.

The tour runs into several key "Obstructions." First of all there is Jong Se-jin, a theater person who is assigned to Red Chapel along with Mrs. Pak, and when he watches Simon and Jacob doing their routine, which is strictly designed to be silly, crude, and funny, neither he nor any of his assistants is pleased. They clap, but their facial expressions show stony distaste. The toy kingdom style of the country is revealed early on when the visitors are taken to bow down before a large statue of Kim Il-sung, father of Kim Jong-il. When Mrs. Pak is asked what she feels about the Dear Leader's dead father, she breaks into tears. The narrator interprets this as being the only way she can express how awful it is to live in this country.

After the troupe is set up in a theater and do their performance in rehearsal, the Korean theater person steps in with some "suggestions." Actually what he wants is to remove any shred of Danishness from the performance and substitute an entirely new routine, with different costumes and props. A key aspect: Jacob is to remain in his wheelchair for the entire performance and then appear to walk up out of it normally at the end, acting as if he isn't handicapped, just pretending to be. Something has to be devised to hide that an actual handicapped person has been allowed to perform on a North Korean stage. A lot more manipulations are introduced, and Simon and Jacob are given Kim Jong-il suits to wear, and King Song Il buttons to pin on, showing they're safe. The performances by young students from a special theatrical school speak for themselves. The little girls and boys are sad and scary. But even Jacob begins to see that in some ways dictatorship works, and some people are happy with its order and simplicity. There's something sweet and sad about Mrs. Pak.

Then comes a photo op you wouldn't believe: a chance to be part of the country's biggest event of the year, a commemoration of the day the Korean War began, started, according to their mythology, by the Americans. There are many explanations of how evil the Americans are. The Danes aren't expected to mind. Mrs. Pak, Mads, and Jacob in his wheelchair participate in the march with everyone raising their right fists in a fascist salute in honor of the Dear Leader. Jacob breaks down at this. He will not raise his right fist. Luckily, only we and the Danes know what he's saying. Before the end of the film, though, Jacob is playing and having a good time with kids. In he end the film, which is a tad less subversive than it may want to be, is as much about Jacob as it is about North Korean's fake exterior and hidden evils.

Mads Brügger seems to be the kind of documentary maker who approaches his subject matter with his mind already made up. He is not there to discover or investigate, but to tell you what he decided about North Korea and its people before he even set foot in the country.

Under the pretext of a cultural exchange, Brügger traveled to Pyongyang with two Danish comics of Korean descent: tough-looking tattooed Simon, and 19-year-old spastic Jacob. They were to put on a theatrical performance, and document the process in a film. The North Koreans saw it as an opportunity to boost their image and slip in a bit of propaganda, unaware that these guys are really mocking them and are determined to expose the North Korea as the oppressive evil regime that it is.

Throughout the film, Brügger's narration tells us that North Korea and its people are evil, duplicitous, conniving and manipulative. A lot of what he says about the oppression and brutality of the regime is probably true. But he does not seem to have any insight beyond what a regular westerner who occasionally reads about North Korea in the news would have. And I don't know what qualifies him to make one superlative statement after another, passing personal opinions off as expert knowledge, presenting speculation as fact. No sources or evidence is ever cited.

He says of Mrs Park, the guide assigned to their party: it's most likely that she learnt her English in the army; her English is more suited to interrogation than small talk; she works for the Secret Service. Of a group of clapping school children, he declares: they are clapping out of fear. He may be right, or he may not be. There is no evidence to suggest one way or the other. He is seeing only what he wants to see, and does not attempt to reach beneath the surface or understand his subjects.

Despite his young age, Jacob provided the most poignant and valuable insights. Obliged by his assignment to play along as the friendly and grateful visitor, Jacob is tormented by the duplicity of his role, knowing that the North Korean people around him will be torn to shreds in the final film. "There is more than one side to a question... It's not that simple", he wails in his "spastic Danish".

Brügger is eager to show that North Koreans are duplicitous, conniving and manipulative. We can only speculate on the motives and purposes of the outwardly polite Korean hosts. But we do know that, the whole time Brügger is singing the praises of North Korea in front of his hosts and expressing his gratitude towards them, he has nothing but contempt and hatred for them. Seeing this behaviour, Jacob confronts him: "Don't you have any moral scruples?" "None, not when it comes to North Korea," he replies.

Beyond manipulating his North Korean hosts, Brügger is not beneath manipulating the two young comics either. In one scene, Jacob asks Brügger to translate for him. Brügger says something completely different. "That's not what I said," Jacob says angrily. "Stop lying." Brügger ignores him and does it again. Perhaps Brügger's clearest insight in the film is when he wonders if he is manipulating Jacob for his own propaganda as much as the North Koreans are trying to do.

As a documentary on life in North Korea, I think this film is heavy handed and one-dimensional. But, perhaps inadvertently, it is interesting as a study of human nature, and how people on different sides of an ideological divide might not be that different after all. I wish Jacob had been in charge of the film.

This is on Netflix and is available for streaming. There is an English version there also. Having lived in South Korea for 7 years and being a speaker of Korea myself I learned quite a bit about life in North Korea. This documentary did a great job at showing you just how messed up life is there. I respect other cultures but embrace differences but the difference there is not something worthy of being accepted by anyone. A great watch for anyone interested in North Korea. The English title is The Red Chapel . Great laughs while learning something at the same time. Recommended watch. One review here struck me wrong. To say the leadership in NK does not care about the outside perceptions of their country is not correct. The leadership of NK has always taken EXTREME measures to protect what they consider the worlds view of them. Some of the antics by Kim Jung Ill and his Father were almost funny to watch. The story of the flags in the JSA is a good mine is bigger than yours story. Prior to Jung Ill dying he was known for wearing platform shoes to appear taller when on camera. It is also known that the people behave one way when cameras are on and another when off. All the time.

I saw maybe a half hour before I turned it off. Sound and photography were poor, but I thought something intriguing might have come of this. It was the story of three Danish comedians, two born in South Korea and one of them restricted to a wheelchair with cerebral palsy-and purportedly handicapped people are wiped out in North Korea, or at least are kept out of sight. The evident idea was that the comedians were supposed to be putting on a silly comedy show while trying to expose how life in North Korea really is.

One problem is that the comedians keep conflicting, as if acting at cross-purposes. Another is that the comedians do and say things which make their handlers displeased-in a country where disgrace and likely death await those who make even the mildest criticism of the Great Leader. Third, everything they show is censored for the same reason. What can they show that that the government would not allow the outside world to see?

Whatever the filmmakers intended to tell us, we never felt we were learning anything we haven't heard already.

The people involved in this were beyond naive and amateurs in all matters.

The North Koreans in power could care less about outside perceptions and will do just about anything to keep the lie going. They undoubtedly edit all the footage they had of the "project" and made a wonderful, inspiring and glorious documentary of their own to show the People of North Korea.

The narrator/director was such a fool, and kept making completely erroneous assumptions about what was happening. The North Koreans were working with their own script, when Mrs. Park inexplicably (according to the genius director) hugs and comforts the "unfortunate" cripple, you just KNOW it's part of the North Korean script. When the North finally falls, I suspect we'll get to see their version of this mocumentary, showing us the glorious way they embraced and helped those misguided souls who the West has so wronged.

The closing shot will be them marching in honor and giving the Hitler salute to the kind glorious Kim Jong il. The buffoon wins this one.