Under the Sun

Russian director Vitaly Mansky reveals the inner workings of the North Korean propaganda machine in this weirdly compelling documentary mixing scenes that are being fashioned for Mansky's camera by government authorities together with secretly-shot footage illustrating how these scenes were choreographed and rehearsed. As he explains in an introductory title card, Mansky was assigned a script about Zin-Mi, an 8-year-old Pyongyang girl preparing to join the Children's Union on the Day of the Shining Star—the birthday of Kim Jong-Il, the present leader's late father. The so-called plot was to focus on the run-up to the massive festivities that mark the nationwide celebration while digressing to show Zin-Mi's happy family in their purportedly normal routines—following the girl at school and depicting the parents at their jobs in supremely productive factories. Mansky, who was constantly accompanied by governmental handlers, dutifully followed the plan laid out for him, but kept the camera running during numerous takes in which prompters exhorted their handpicked casts to exhibit greater patriotic enthusiasm (he also caught occasional off-the-cuff remarks indicating that even the central family unit was a fraud that had been assembled for optimal effect). While one might question the ethics of Mansky's decision to sneak his damning unofficial footage out of the country, Under the Sun demonstrates with piercing simplicity the level of indoctrination that pervades North Korean society, which is dominated by a cult of personality that Stalin himself would have envied. Recommended. (F. Swietek)