UNDER THE SUN (Vitaly Mansky, Russia/Czech Republic/North Korea/Germany). 106 minutes. Rating: NNNN
There’s journalistic filmmaking and then there’s what Vitaly Mansky does in Under The Sun – travelling to North Korea to make a documentary about a schoolgirl, Zin-mi, who’s about to join the Korean Union for Children and become a fully vested citizen of the DPR.
Accompanied constantly by minders, Mansky shot the (scripted) footage he was there to shoot, but he also left his cameras running between takes to reveal how much control is being exerted over everything we’ve seen.
Watching the finished film is a uniquely disturbing experience. It’s like someone’s opened a window into an Orwellian universe where lies are truth, freedom is slavery and dictatorship is the will of the people. At least when it ends we can return to our world Zin-mi and her family are trapped there forever.
Apr 30, 7 pm, Innis May 1, 4 pm, TIFF 4 May 7, 12:30 pm, Scotiabank 14