Once Upon a Time in Pyongyang
Being visiting Pyongyang, capital of Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, better known just as North Korea, as a guest for italian delegation for the Pyongyang International Film Festival in 2014, I have been able to witness the surreal and bizarre contraddictions of this dictatorship, as totalitarist as the Pharaons times might be.
Experienceing Pyongyang then meant to have a double sight. Mine own, as an international film-maker who travelled the World, and who has enough education to understand how a population can be hurt by being brainwashed by a society focused on the image of their leaders (the Kim family, here worshipped like Gods)and tangled into rules straight beyond belief. The sigh of my guide, Yun Chol Lim, named by me ironically “Charlie”, who became a good friend and the internal point of view where I have been exploring what actually happens in the intimacy of this people.
2018 has been seeing so much tensions between North Korea and United States, treatening a nuclear war for interests more linked to the chinese economy than to the real freedom of this small Country. Generally it has believed that has been the intervention of Donald Trump to convince Kim Jong Un, the current dictator, to meet the President Moon, in charge in South Korea, to start a dialogue in order to become again as a whole nation.
It is clear that Kim is really afraid for his life, and it has been the intervention of President Xi, in charge in China, which gives aliments to DPRK, to force Kim to turn his face, and become “the good guy.”.
My second coming in Pyongyang is in coincidence with the 70th Anniversary of the birth of the Nation and, most important, the first visit from President Moon on the Pyongyang territory.
My plan to shoot a virtual reality experience set in Pyongyang was treatened by the straight rules this Country has on policy of what is filmable and what is not. Indeed what is even possible to phisically reach, as the whole visit, for any foreigner, has to be tracked step by step by the guides and it is impossible to leave the hotel by yourself and any location is chosen by them. I was aware that my quest could result in the requisition of my equipment, arrest or, worst case scenario, death penalty.
My challenge was even more dangerous considering my intention has been to realize some footage in order to start a VR series inspired by a legendary film, made in North Korea by the will of former dictator Kim Jong Il, huge fan of genre films, called Pulgasari. Pulgasari VR is an adventure that worth to be told, as somebody said listening my idea. Now I am here telling the first phases, the most dangerous ones.
In order to achieve my footage, I needed to be less explicit, and cover my mission through a “simple” documentary 360 shooting on architecture, telling the story of my visit on that territory. Authority has been enthusiastic at the idea, and they will to cooperate with me as more as possible in the future. This positive attitude, probably triggered by the climate of peace from the South Korean president, unleashed me to try for more.
This time I had two guides. Kim Song Jing, a english teacher at the local film school, who has been interrogating me on the difference between “Pink Films” and “Blue Movies”, and Kim Chong, a young language interpreter, speaking me in spanish, coming from a diplomat family and dreaming of a similar carreer which could drain her out of there. The situation gave me the possibility to explore different points of view, by different genders, asking questions not directly but leading them to land on the arguments I wanted them to discuss, in order to understand how much this people living in a bubble of misinformation, is aware of what happens to them.
The first information I looked forward to find out was their opinion on this new friendship with South Korea. Both of them, they were of the same opionion, answering like being instructed in repeating the same words. “We and South Korea share the same language, the same race, the same blood. We are brothers and we look forward to be united together.”. They speak the will of their supreme leader, which mean that yes, soon the two koreas are going to be back as one. This means first that the Trump government will need to find a different excuse in order to attack China and start a war that will culminate in the disappearence of any obligation with the chinese economy.
In second instance it means that, after the population of the two Koreas, raised so differently like for the Northern this 70 years never passed, frozen in time, once the Country will find a form of government right for both, Korea will be a bigger and more powerful Country, with a lot of manpower living the enthusiasm of freedom, but under the experience of a creative economy.
The main gap is to overcome the shock of the DPRK population to find out what happen in the rest of the World. DPRK doesn’t have internet, explains me Kim Chong, but an intranet service which is enough to communicate between each other. The reason is because the American propaganda would spread fake news to influence the population against the government of the supreme leader. Basically Northkoreans say about Americans what Americans say about Russians.
Nonetheless, this middle class citizens are well educated and sincerelly convinced that the Juche Idea, the philosophy behind their regime, “man is able to do everything under true will”, which is basically Thelema’s concept by Alejster Crowley, is a secret power of determination known only by them, and as a treasure they need to keep it.
The way they train them is clear visiting Mangyongdae Children Palace, wich looks like designed by Willie Wonka, and it is here that kids learn arts. In the classes unnaturally skilled children perform in front of the visitors, and I feel for the first time like being in a human zoo. This children performes in a acrobatic show that is impressive for the age of the artists, so young that is hard to believe they had time to do anything else but training in their too short lives. The guides promise no pressure has been done to the kids, but a propaganda film shown the day after, Komrade Kim Goes Flying, about the story of a wannabe acrobat from the working class, suggests that things are different. The main character, as bizarre as her depiction is excessive, is cheating and lying to reach her goals. Lying, in this side of Asia, is considered socially acceptable and even polite, in a Machiavellic vision of society. It happens the same in the western world but it is hidden as a secret or at least as a guilty pleasure, not as a skill. The girl protagonist then traines a lot until she decides to quit, but she’s told that the will of the leader is her to succeed, so there is no quitting time. The fake smile on her face represents the constant identity of this population.
The day after the visit of the President Moon has been crowned by a huge event in the National Stadium where thousands of performers engage in a impressive choreography of light, music, acrobats and dancing, telling the story of Korea until this reunion. During one of the acts, some performers mimes a tae kwan do fight, and some of them pretend to fall of the ground. At the end, every acrobat stands to clear the area. All of them but one.