WELCOME TO NORTH KOREA

By Linda JABLONSKA

NEGATIV FILM PRODUCTIONS - as SALES / PROD

Documentary - Completed 2008

The film follows twenty-seven Czechs on a sightseeing tour of a country which cultivates a cult of personality, maintains concentration camps and doesn’t hide its development of nuclear weapons. The North Korean system is starkly reminiscent of the Czechs' own past...

    • Year of production
    • 2008
    • Genres
    • Documentary
    • Countries
    • CZECH REPUBLIC
    • Languages
    • CZECH
    • Duration
    • 76 mn
    • Director(s)
    • Linda JABLONSKA
    • Writer(s)
    • Linda JABLONSKA
    • Producer(s)
    • Milan KUCHYNKA (Negativ)
    • Synopsis
    • In its catalogue, a Czech travel agency offers a “journey into the unknown”, a tour of North Korea. This trip was the second time since 1990 that a group of Czech tourists set foot in North Korea. The film follows twenty-seven Czechs who have decided to spend approximately 2,600 Euros on a sightseeing tour of a country which cultivates a cult of personality, maintains concentration camps for its citizens and doesn’t hide its development of nuclear weapons. Foreign visitors are only allowed a view of a carefully prepared illusion, thoroughly supervised by “guides”. What is more, the North Korean system is starkly reminiscent of the Czechs' own past. Which emotions do our travellers experience: sympathy, nostalgia or, in contrast, happiness that “we already have this behind us”? How does someone, after being accustomed to freedom and democracy, come to terms with the directives and restrictions of a totalitarian system?