Welcome To North Korea

Film Synopsis

Welcome To North Korea
Director: Linda Jablonska
Year: 2009
Country: Czech Republic
Duration: 76 minutes
Print Source: Negative Film Productions
Web: www.negativ.cz
 

Welcome To North Korea follows a small touring party from the Czech Republic as they enter one of the most inaccessible countries in the world: North Korea. What follows is a unique film that takes a look at the secret state through tourism and the tourist experience. The travellers are not investigative journalists and they are not trying to expose anything about the government or society instead they stick to a well managed routine, although as the holiday progresses other aspects of the culture start to become apparent. 
 
This film does not simply focus on the management of tourism in an oppressive regime but also on what motivates a group of strangers to travel together deep into what George Bush referred to as the ‘Axis of Evil. Unlike most westerner’s experience these tourists – many of whom grew up behind the Iron Curtain – see something more complex and, thanks to an empathy from their own cultural experience, perhaps something more sad than evil. 
 
By turns fascinating, disconcerting, amusing and tragic, Welcome To North Korea offers fascinating a glimpse into another world rarely seen.