Documentary Review

Recently I watched the documentary "The Red Chapel", made in 2009. It's about three Danish guys who pose as a theater troupe called The Red Chapel troupe, and go to North Korea under the pretense of cultural exchange. Actually though, they're spying. The name Red Chapel is a communist reference, but to a communist group spying on Nazi Germany, so maybe not the idea that the North Koreans had. The group is made up of the journalist Mads Brügger, and the comedians Simon Jul and Jacob Nossell. Simon and Jacob were born in Korea, but given up for adoption and grew up in Denmark. This was the first time they'd been home. Here's the trailer, kind of long, but good.

Mags is a weird sort of journalist. He impersonates things he's not in order to get information he wants, and that's what's going on here. He gets these two comedians to pretend they're a communist sympathizing theater troupe, so he can get in and try and expose North Korea and get good solid evidence of the atrocities the government commits. The troupe does actually put together a show, with skits and tap dancing and songs, to perform. But tt turns out a little differently than he expects. Besides focusing on Mags' search for truth, the documentary also looks at Jacob's experience. See, Jacob suffers from cerebral palsy, so he's usually in a wheelchair, has speech issues, and his muscles don't work the way they're supposed to. His intelligence level is normal, but everything else is really obvious. North Korea has been accused of killing children with disabilities. As they get closer to the performance date, the North Korea government representatives assigned to the troupe give Jacob a smaller and smaller role, eventually saying that he can't even talk. Jacob says that when he went there he was naive and didn't realize how bad it really was, he was only 18, but it really did serve as an awakening for him, as well as to highlight the issue of how people with handicaps are treated in North Korea.

Something that I really like about this documentary is that there's a counterpoint to Mags' view that North Korea is terrible, and he is right in doing whatever it takes to get the information out. Mags says that he has no scruples at all, and he joins in in doing whatever the North Koreans are doing so they won't get suspicious, but Jacob won't do it. He believes that the issue is more complicated than Mags will admit too, and they have some interesting discussions about it. But Mags also talks about whether he prompted Jacob into an emotional breakdown, and whether he's right for doing this without being confronted which I liked. It was nice that he entertained the thought, and talked about it in the movie. While a lot of it is dedicated to him trying to catch the North Koreans, and he can be a bit of a jerk sometimes, he's honest and I thought that was good.

This documentary is really interesting because it shows what it's like inside of North Korea. At least as much as is possible, given that the government really doesn't allow anyone outside of a given area. But they are shown a lot of Pyongyang, schools, culture centers, and they go on some picnics. Mads compares going on a picnic in North Korea to going on a picnic in the Black Forest in Nazi Germany. While watching the movie, you're always reminded of the terrible conditions, the totalitarian government. Pyongyang is empty, there's almost no one in the streets. And the three Dutch guys have this lady named Mrs. Pak follow them around everywhere, all the time, and they're only allowed to see what the government wants them to see. They have a camera, but they have to turn over the film to government censors, who will cut out any parts they see as demeaning to their "Great Leader", Kim Jong Il (remember this was made in 2009). 

"The Red Chapel" was made with not that great of a camera, and it was just one camera, so they can't really get all that fancy with the cinematography. But the editing is really nice, especially in this one scene where they all go to school. There's a bunch of super talented genius kids, and pictures of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il everywhere, and it's all edited so that is goes by very quickly, with the Great Leaders in pretty much all of the shots, and it's really overwhelming which is how it was for the Jacob and Simon. There's also a recurring motif. Trusted members of the inner party get these little pins with a picture of Kim Il Sung's face on them, and whenever they meet someone new there's a shot of the pin. This isn't really editing, but it's kind of in the same category. They used a lot of archival footage of old performances, or old appearances of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, and that really added to the image of North Korea that they were creating.The sound is similarly sort of elegantly understated, basically just whatever they had available. They got to watch some performances by some of the super talented genius children from the school, and sound from those performances is used in throughout the movie. Other than that, it's mostly just dialogue, ambiant noise, and also Mags' narration that was added in after they came back to Denmark. 

I thought this movie was really interesting, and it might not be interesting to everyone, but I think if you're interested in current events or world history or stuff like that then it would be interesting. Also it's just entertaining to watch and see the interactions between the government officials and the three Dutch guys who are trying to see how far they can push it. After these three guys, no Dutch journalists have ever been let in to North Korea. Here's the movie poster, here is a link to the movie's website, and this is the end.