User reviews

Under the Sun was well-received at Austin's SXSW Film Festival. It is a surreal film which was filmed by a Russian director who was given extraordinary access to film a family in Pyongyang, North Korea. Of course the entire film was scripted by the government and the director and his crew were monitored by government minders. The product is a picture of the family eating dinner, the young girl in class, the parents at work and everybody following the script. The young girl gets to join the children's union, a group that bears a striking resemblance to Hitler Youth. It is like a scene out of George Orwell that would fit well in Leni Riefenstahl propaganda film. Oddly, perhaps by accident or carelessness, the North Korean minders sometimes allowed the film crew to film some scenes where they are given instructions on what they want done in the next scene. The overall picture is eerie and it is difficult to tell whether the people just obey out of habit or out of fear. Are they complete automatons in most bizarre regime in the world? Do they even understand that there is alternative reality or have they been completely brainwashed to believe that they live in some sort of workers' paradise? While a little repetitive at times, Under the Sun is fascinating and rare chance to see inside the most isolated and repressive country on Earth. Recommended if you can deal with this sort of material.

This documentary is very important. It helps to show the manipulation that must go on daily in North Korea. The constant reminders to "be more joyful" or to act "with patriotism" demonstrate this. It is well worth watching, if for no other reason that to see how Orwellian the world can become if allowed.

But by the end of the film, I felt sympathy for everyone involved. The children, the parents, and even the handlers.

While the children and parents are being directed by the handlers, the handlers are following the directions of those above them, and so on. These handlers are simply people who want to do their jobs and avoid punishment, the same as everyone else. You can see it, especially in one scene towards the end, when they are tucking Zin-mi into bed. The North Korean director looks as tired as anyone else, and as downtrodden. Everyone has a role to play, it seems.

The film is conflicting because you have to wonder what could happen to these people for their failure to censor this film adequately. Or for their failure to act appropriately patriotic in some of the takes that the censors didn't want us to see. We have to hope that the honesty of this film didn't lead to anyone coming to harm.

The European and Russian filmmakers were invited by the North Korean government to make a documentary that glorified their country, but the filmmakers managed to subvert the intent of the film by keeping the cameras running while the government handlers were giving instructions to the participants. Other reviewers have discussed the ways in which the government handlers coached the participants and created fake backgrounds for the family.

But it is the unstaged scenes that really give an indication of the totalitarian nature of the country. I have ridden subways in New York, Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles, London, Stockholm, Tokyo, and Seoul, and I have never seen, nor could I have imagined, a scene like the one after Zin-mi's initiation into the Children's Union. (That's a surreal event in itself, especially the unison applause that all stops at the same time.) That is, literally hundreds of parents and children are at the subway station, returning from what is supposed to be a momentous occasion, and none of the parents or children say a word. They wait silently for the train, and they ride it silently, looking rather depressed.

Or take the arrival at work. Everyone silently stands in line, and they are expected to bow to a billboard of the Kim family before turning at a right angle and entering the building. After dancers in colorful costumes rehearse outside, they silently board buses. Nobody seems to talk in public or show anything but a blank facial expression. Even in more intimate scenes, even among the children, people seem to be looking for cues as to what is permitted or appropriate.

This is not "Communism." I was in China in 1990 and in Cuba in 2011, and in both countries, people talk and show emotions in public.

It is telling that the North Koreans saw all the footage (except what the filmmakers held back) and still approved it. Are they so into their own mindset that they don't know that foreigners would be creeped out by a society in which people act like robots in public?

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.

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.

Greetings again from the darkness. There is an old episode of "The Twilight Zone" that has always stuck with me. It starred Bill Mumy (who later became well known as Will Robinson in "Lost in Space") as a young boy with God-like mental and telekinetic powers. The entire town was afraid of him, so they constantly acted in ways to make him believe they were happy and appreciated him. Memories of that show came rushing back as I watched this documentary from Russian director Vitaly Manskiy. We outsiders know little about life in North Korea (it's known as 'the Hermit Kingdom'), though the film seems to confirm what we've been led to believe: it's a country filled with citizens either living in fear or living with acceptance of their plight (or both).

Director Manskiy was contracted to make a movie about daily life of an ordinary family in Pyongyang. Two "escorts" were assigned to him, a state-sponsored script was provided, and his footage was reviewed daily. When the project was dissolved, Manskiy assembled the pieces … and added the secretly saved snippets from when he kept the cameras rolling between takes. The result is a documentary on the attempts of a Communist government to stage an illusion of perfection. It comes off as a foolish propaganda effort to convince the world that North Koreans are a happy people. What we see on screen convinces us otherwise.

At the center of all this is 8 year old Zin-mi and her family. If you thought The Monkees were a pre-fab TV version of The Beatles, this shows what true manipulation is all about. Zin-mi's parents are given new jobs for the movie version. Rather than a print journalist, her father is given a job as an executive at a garment factory; and rather than a cafeteria worker, her mother is presented as working at a soy milk factory. Additionally, the family is moved into a nice apartment and then provided with meal time conversation, and even told where and how to sit and stand.

Zin-mi has joined the Children's Union and the whole community is preparing for Day of the Shining Star – the national holiday celebrating the birthday of Kim Jong-Il; keeping alive the memory of their supreme leader who died in 2011. During these preparations, we see the clean streets and no-frills buildings, as well as the brainwashing that occurs during presentations and classes … the Japanese are labeled scoundrels, while Americans are cowards. The lingering images, and faces of those posing for photos, can't mask the emptiness of the individuals.

The film reinforces more than enlightens, and it's more a rare snapshot of this society than a global perspective. Still, we can't help but feel saddened for the people as their lines are fed to them with directions like, that was "too gloomy", and, do it again with "joy". No proof of the brutal regime is presented, but it's obvious freedom of thought is not encouraged. The correlation becomes all the more ironic when it's recalled that the title of that Twilight Zone episode was "It's a Good Life".

Mansky deserves every possible praise for this piece. To make this movie despite DPRK's restrictions necessitated a lot of courage. If they were caught smuggling the footage out of North Korea, the harshest sentence wouldn't have missed them.

This film is a testament to the horrible conditions the North Korean people must live in and portrays a perfect behind the scenes look to the inner workings of the North Korean propaganda machine. The people in the DPRK's government coming up with this idea mustn't have really been the sharpest tools in the shed, inviting a foreign respected director to shoot stupid propaganda piece I could've shot.

I'm proud that the Czech Republic had its hand in financing the film and thus helping to open the eyes of the world to the mental abuse of every single North Korean citizen taking place every single day. Bravo to the three crew members and their courage!

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

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 closer to those people. With all the apparent differences, they are very similar to us. To me, you, and everyone else in this world. Living their lives, doing their best, and hoping for the better for themselves and their children.

I wish the movie had more 'out-of-script' footage but it looks like it was hard to get.

Also, I would prefer there were less narrative text as some of it is quite questionable.

The final scene is superb!

== + 1 line for the stupid IMDb requirement

This would be a great documentary if permitted so by North Korea. However, movies transfer emotions from the location or situation to a person watching it. As my summary says, it did it perfectly. We cant really see what is happening inside North Korea and how people live their every day lives but this certainly gives an idea how it may be in reality. It still leaves a great deal of details to our imagination but certainly gives us a hint.

I will not comment or review this piece from a technical point of view as I could not focus on this part watching this. What we need to focus on, are certain aspects of life in North Korea and this staged documentary surely gives us an overview. You end up feeling upset, angry and at the same time heartbroken and in tears.

Filmmakers deserve thumbs up for trying to achieve the impossible and they did the best from what they have been permitted to get and still came out of country all together and alive.

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.

To be honest, this film shows exactly the same as I expect about North Korea, but as a Chinese who born at 1993, I feel more complex rather than sympathy.

When I was at 7, I was also very proud of join children's union, children can talk about join this union for half years, no matter of what exactly this union means. No one knows what you will be responsible for this union, it seems empty and funny now, but for then, I just proud of it and "always ready" as well.

Then the factory is also so real, basically all of my friends in my childhood were live in the factory. Some factories got their own primary school for children who born in that area. It is easier and safer for children to play around factory area, it seems like just flash back to my childhood.

Then the recite thing in the very end of the movie is exactly same as myself experience too. However when I become an adult I am really thankful for that time when I was forced to recite those much thing, because nowadays when I see beautiful things those painful poems and lyrics just come out of my mind, gives me the best way of describing beauties.

From my prospective, this mode maybe fit for North Korea. If people cannot see the outside world for this moment, then they will not become angry, jealous or pessimistic about their future.

At the beginning of the movie I really thought that if China can develop this quick in this 15 years, maybe North Korea can do the same thing too.

Although it is looks sad for a moment.

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

The movie is wonderful and present the sad live of the northkorean Girl.

It was so touched when Zin Mi started to recite the "cheerful" poem that I couldn't stop weeping. Her whole childhood was filled with Kim Il sung, Kim Jong Il and Kim Jong un, which resembled so much the lives under the reign of Mao Zedong. It seems that we are undergoing another cult of personality towards Xi, although to a lesser extent. Nobody knows whether we will become the next North Korea.

The broad usage of close-ups of actors' faces is a significant feature of this documentary, which leads us to be curious about their inner thoughts. However, we know nothing about their true thoughts, veiled by DPRK's political correctness for so long. This is a world full of disguises and lies, or what's worse, they have already firmly believed what they are told to believe.

We all know that North Korea is a secretive kind of place. It's run by a dictator who's revered as a living god and his father and grandfather are worshiped even after death.

A Russian film crew were invited to film a documentary of a young North Korean girl and her joining of the North Korean Communist Youth league commonly known as the "Young Pioneers". They intended this to be a propaganda piece, as all North Korean works are, to show the youth of of the DPRK the proper kind of mindset to have. What they didn't intend was for all the behind the scenes footage to be filmed as well.

Basic story is nobody told the filmmakers to stop filming when they stopped a scene or the director would walk on and give direction to the actors so we see a lot that they didn't want to show. Of course North Korea wasn't happy with this, blamed the film crew of sabotaging their movie and promptly kicked them out of the country. But they didn't confiscate their film and this documentary is what we get.

While it's not necessarily a scathing expose of what goes on behind the curtains, it is bad enough that it shows some of the corruption, rot and revisionism that North Korea is famous for trying to hide.

A raw glimpse into the dystopian hell that is North Korea, and Pyongyang in particular. Joyless, suffocatingly oppressed, vacant-stare automatons whose last shred of spontaneous humanity has been extinguished. They plod on daily, working in factories or walking on car-less streets in speechless, robotic cadence in eerie silence or to the drone of state propaganda over loudspeakers. All are conditioned from birth to be nothing more than slaves and props of the state. Life is pointless. The Dear Leader is everything. And these - these - are the privileged Party members who are but the 9% of the nation's population graced to live in Pyongyang while the majority population endures the rural poverty characterizing most of the country.

Many people who come to North Korea for the first time directly publish what they see as film, comic or book. Most of them have almost no knowledge about North Korea other than commonly known through the media image in the western hemisphere. This documentary varies from the standard tourist program that most undergo by combining it with a story of the life of a 9-year-old girl which was filmed at three short visits within one year.

Like many documentaries on North Korea it was produced in cooperation with a North Korean film agency. The whole attitude of this film makes me feel ashamed of watching it: As soon as the director gets the proposed script, he sees it as imposed on him. What follows is a bunch of outtakes and rehearsal scenes with melancholic violin and piano music, which should depict the evil nature of the state and the pitiful condition of society. The disobedience against the arrangements and directions of the North Korean partners is more like a 14-year-old smoking secretly than something helpful for understanding North Korea. Therefore I would rather recommend anyone attempting to watch this to switch to "My Brothers and Sisters in the North" (Sung Hyung Cho, 2016), because it gives a broader view into North Korean reality (if you are able to deduce within the lines), because it also shows that one can always negotiate with the North Korean film partners and even change interview partners on the set and film without anyone else present.

The documentary seems to expect North Korean people to act like robots and that it what is gets by exactly fulfilling a plot which homages the state's narrative. It's hard to see how this documentary does not take the people in front of the camera as humans by using them for the agenda of this film and secretly filming them without consent. Everything in this film is set up because that's what's expected from North Korea. This documentary is not an improvement to the whole lot of single-story North Korea films and totally falls in the category of North Korea documentaries which are meta-parodied by "The Red Chapel" (Mads Brügger, 2009), because there the director Mads Brügger also stays in his own mindset of revealing-the-stage-play while Jacob Nossell finds a human level of interaction with the people he encounters.

This filmmaker is of the leave-the-camera-on school, also of the cut- nothing school, a dangerously boring combination.

Guess I have to write more than just a hot take. I wish bad filmmakers suffered a video quality penalty. Good cameras are so accessible these days that everyone thinks they can direct. I really can't believe I allowed this movie to suck 2 hours of my life like the worlds most uninteresting eel. Have I expressed how annoyed I am at this doc? I don't even want to give it the satisfaction of addressing it's content. I feel like the director was trying to brainwash me into enjoying completely unrestrained self-indulgent dullness. Wow, there's still 20 minutes to go. Unbelievable.