Thoughts on 'Under the sun' Documentary

Before watching this eye-opening documentary, I had initially known of the issues the North Korean people were facing with propaganda and it's government. However, this has shed a whole new light as to what they go through, through the eyes of a young eight-year-old named Zin-mi.

Reading more into the story, I become aware of how the filmmaker was invited to film in North Korea under the strict conditions that he films only in certain locations, and with their own script of how everything should go, which plays heavily into the propaganda lifestyle that the civilization face there. However luckily the Russian documentarian named Vitaly Mansky was able to keep the cameras running, catching several moments of scripted and unnatural behavior which reveals the cheery lifestyle that the North Korean supervisors of the film were intending to portray. One particular moment that caught my eye was when at the ideal factory, where Zin-mi’s mom works, we see the North Korean supervisors constantly yell to the workers 'more joyfully'! to portray a certain false image to the cameras. During that moment we were introduced to a series of wide, OTS, and close up shots in order to get a feel of the environment as well as the seemingly uncomfortable workers emotions. Another moment was when Zin-mi would be watching TV from her home, all she would find is the propaganda promoting leader Kim jun in as this hero whom they should all almost worship, rather than the cartoons or joyful content normal kids of her age should be exposed to at the tender age of eight.

I could almost always see the look of pain, discomfort and unwillingness in the people's eyes whenever forced to act a certain way for the cameras as the documentary would use several cuts throughout each scene of every contributer involved at that time with a variety of mid to close up shots so us as the viewer would be able to judge their emotions for ourselves which made every moment seem more powerful that it might have been otherwise, this speaks heavily to the governments imposed taste of the film and the everyday issues faced, however I believe that it is a positive step taken when the world can see the true colours of the nations government.

References:

Bird, R. (2017, January 19). Under the Sun. Retrieved February 7, 2017, from https://filmstudiescenter.uchicago.edu/events/2017/under-sun

Dalton, S. (2015, November 20). 'Under The Sun' ('V lutsah solntsa'): Film Review. Retrieved February 7, 2017, from https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/under-sun-v-lutsah-solntsa-842412