Friday, March 29, 2024
 
Click HERE to sign up to receive Eye On Sun Valley's Daily News Email
 
‘Under the Sun’ Offers A Peek Inside North Korea
Loading
   
Thursday, September 28, 2017
 

BY KAREN BOSSICK

We can’t escape the images of “Rocket Man”—Kim Jong-il—and President Trump sparring on the evening news.

Now, the Sun Valley Center for the Arts is offering a chance to go behind the scenes of that Reality TV to get a real-life peek behind the curtain into the lives of an 8-year-old girl named Zin-mi and her family in North Korea.

The Center will present the feature-length documentary film, “Under the Sun,” at 7 p.m. tonight--Thursday, Sept. 28-- at the Magic Lantern Cinema in Ketchum. The first of The Center’s 2017-18 Film Series, it’s being shown as part of its current BIG IDEA project “The Unreliable Narrator.”

Russian director Vitaly Mansky is a Ukrainian-born filmmaker who has spent his career exploring how totalitarian states use propaganda to make the reality of life seem better than it is with such films. His films include the 2011 film “Motherland or Death,” an emotional look at daily life in Cuba.

He filmed “Under the Sun” after two years of negotiation with the North Korean government, in which he had to agree to the North Koreans writing the script and selecting the subjects and locations. What the government did not realize is that he kept filming even after film managers had shouted “Cut!”

In the process, Mansky depicts a young girl shouting allegiance to North Korea’s dictator and eating delicious food with her parents in their apartment in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang as she prepares to join the Children’s Union youth group on the Day of the Shinging Star, Kim Jong-il’s birthday.

But he also captures such scenes as that of uniformed workers being commanded to talk “joyfully” about how much they love their work producing soy milk.

The end result is “a surreal and sinister…real-life version of ‘The Truman Show,’” The Hollywood Reporter said, referring to the movie which revolves around an insurance adjuster who discovers his life is actually a TV show.

“In looking for a film that could get at the idea of an unreliable narrator, a film that focuses on North Korea seemed impossible to skip,” said Kristine Bretall, director of Performing Arts at The Center.

“With the Kim regime’s reliance on propaganda and media control, it was inevitable that the government would manipulate the documentary project to depict a fictional North Korea to show to the outside world. In the context of current events, the film allows us to peek behind the curtain and see what really happens inside North Korea.”

Tickets for the film, which is being screened during the Magic Lantern’s annual Fall Film Festival, are $10 for members of The Center and $12 for nonmembers, available at www.sunvalleycenter.org or by calling 208-726-9491.

~  Today's Topics ~


Local Bands Offer New Perspective on Who's a Local

Can You Ski on Water? It’s Pond Skim Time

Jake Adicoff Wins Overall World Cup Championship while Other Skiers Do Well in SuperTour Finals
 
 

 

 

 
Website problems? Contact:
Michael Hobbs
General Manager /Webmaster
Mike@EyeOnSunValley.com
 
Got a story? Contact:
Karen Bossick
Editor in Chief
(208) 578-2111
Karen@EyeOnSunValley.com
 
 
Advertising /Marketing /Public Relations
Leisa Hollister
Chief Marketing Officer
(208) 450-9993
leisahollister@gmail.com
 
Brandi Huizar
Account Executive
(208) 329-2050
brandi@eyeonsunvalley.com
 
 
ABOUT US
EyeOnSunValley.com is the largest online daily news media service in The Wood River Valley, publishing 7 days a week. Our website publication features current news articles, feature stories, local sports articles and video content articles. The Eye On Sun Valley Show is a weekly primetime television show focusing on highlighted news stories of the week airing Monday-Sunday, COX Channel 13. See our interactive Kiosks around town throughout the Wood River Valley!
 
info@eyeonsunvalley.com      Press Releases only
 
P: 208.720.8212
P.O. Box 1453 Ketchum, ID  83340
LOGIN

© Copyright 2023 Eye on Sun Valley