NORTH KOREA, THE GREAT ILLUSION

Beyond the propaganda

Synopsis

In 2011, the sudden death of Kim Jung Il brought to power his Western-educated son and basketball fan, Kim Jun-un, 30. But very quickly any hope of liberalization raised by the new leadership faded in front of the dictatorial logic of the first communist dynasty in History.

This is the testimony of a journalist invited to North Korea to film whatever the regime wanted to promote. He did come back with loads of official images but couldn’t help putting them in perspective with accounts of North Korean refugees, shedding a blinding light on the ghastly reality of their country.

Propaganda, mass enrollment, brainwashing, and a cult of personality are the cogs thoroughly dissected in this reference film, a striking case study of the mechanics of a totalitarian country now threatening the world's peace with its nuclear fire.