My Way in Pyongyang (2014) - full transcript

The bridge over Amnok river.

The connection between North

Korea and the rest of the world.

It's an Alice in Wonderland.

You pop down a rabbit-hole

and fall into

a different country, a

different world.

Where nothing is what it

seems...

What is real, what has been

put on scene?

And what has been

put on scene for so

long that it now has

become real again?

Looking around in this

open-air museum of communism,

wondering:

what do you really see...

It's a public holiday in

North Korea.

April 2012.

The country celebrates

the Day of the Sun,

the Great Leader's

100th anniversary.

Kim il Sung, the founder of the

nation, the Sun of Humanity.

The Chinese train pulls us

through Wonderland.

The land is still bare,

it looks grey and gloomy.

A vague transition from

winter to spring.

Small groups of people

everywhere, working.

Quiet, dedicated, united,

or so it seems...

North Korea,

Kim's worker's paradise,

a totalitarian state.

There's the state,

and there's the people.

Leo Tolstoy used to say about

his Russia:

In this world we can

live an excellent life,

if we can work and love,

if we can work for the ones

we love and who can love us.

Is that something the North

Koreans have in store?

We want to see how people

live there, life as it is.

People as they are,

authentic human beings,

what do they think,

what do they feel,

what are their wishes?

And above all: will we

get a glimpse of that,

or will we remain guessing?

KOREAN OVER LOUDSPEAKER

Shinjuju station, North

Korea s frontier station.

Directions... they resound

from the speaker.

How to leave the station.

How to behave in the street.

And how to get on the train.

Law and order. We re in the

nation of the Great Leader,

Kim il Sung, who will be

a hundred

years old in 108 hours

and 38 minutes.

From a towering hotel: the

city, completely rebuilt.

In August 52 the bombing

was increased,

the Americans dropped

as many bombs

as the number of

people living there,

429.000 bombs,

the city had to be flattened.

429.000;

and just as many trauma's.

Pyongyang is the only city

in the world that has

been devastated completely

by bombardments.

And has risen from its ashes

like a flower that

refuses to break,

traumatised but proud,

with the strength of a

people resolved never

to be ruled over again.

Hello, no picture

The Great Leader Kim often

has brilliant ideas.

Such as: about a desk top.

He gave instructions

to turn over the

study table at an

angle of 12 degrees,

which makes the student

absorb much more information.

We are in the Grand

Peoples Study House,

the University of the People .

Here anybody can study

books, music, languages

and culture from countries

all over the world.

One expects nothing, in North Korea.

One expects anything.

But what you're really

amazed about is that they

should study music from

every corner in the world.

Did this music just happen

to stand there...?

From the Grand Peoples Study House

we have a view over the square,

this world famous square.

A few days before the Big Day

thousands of people

are training for

the Day of the Sun.

The day that the Sun of Humanity,

Kim il Sung, will be a

hundred years old.

Will be,

it is laid down in the

constitution that he will

be the Eternal President,

even though he died years ago.

You don't just leave the square.

Sharp orders

guarantee an immaculate

progress of the show.

A taut direction,

thousands of people make

synchronic movements

like a school of fish.

It's a kind of national sport.

Nothing is left to chance,

not even the way to leave the square.

The film industry.

The production of

hundreds of films

in the honour of

Kim's philosophy,

the Juche Idea of the independent,

self supporting nation.

Here they still work at

the makable society,

to the service of Big Director

Kim Jong il.

Who was also a great enthusiast

of Hollywood films, by the way,

and especially of Liz Taylor.

He himself directed the

film "Our Lifeline",

about an ordinary North Korean

who tracks down a double agent

and uncovers an

American-Japanese conspiracy.

Kim's answer to Hollywood,

propaganda against the

unlimited capitalism,

interspersed with

socialist ideals like

solidarity and a sense of community.

The film as a message of

where the country has to go,

and what the country

has achieved.

A film as a direction, a preview,

a political weather forecast.

The reality of daily life

looks different...

Peace and quiet. Lots of

tranquility in North Korea.

Empty, quiet roads,

just the odd car.

Without oil from Russia

it becomes

more and more quiet

on the road...

There is room, to walk,

to work.

In the Western world room is

almost a synonym for freedom.

Freedom to go

wherever you want to go,

to be left alone,

room to think.

Thoughts are free;

speaking out what you

think is another matter

in North Korea...

Gone will be your peace...

The stories about prison camps

speak for themselves...

now and then you smell the fear.

There, between those hills, lies

American concrete, miles of it.

A powerless wall

between two ideologies,

near the border between

two halves of Korea.

Here again: words,

a stream of words.

Explain, over and over

again, convince...

prove your point against

Washington, the prime aggressor.

Pyongyang shows its teeth.

Calimero is angry.

Kaesong, the far south

of Northern Korea.

Most traffic noise is due to

squealing brakes of bicycles...

a harmony of clicking heels,

bicycles,

and the buzz of voices

all over...

The peace and quiet of

a car-free Sunday -

fragments of cheery music,

they do have that

Rooting in the mud. Bare fields,

cattle nowhere to be seen.

A collective farm, small houses

for the farmers.

The landscape mostly

strewn with red characters,

slogans calling for an

increase in production.

The state provides for oil,

seeds and fertilizer,

the produce belongs

to the state;

it gives every North Korean

a share of the food

Most of the time

this isn't enough;

year after year

the country makes an appeal

to the United Nations for help.

In 2012 Kim Jong Un

announced some reforms.

From now on the farmers

are allowed to keep, sell

or exchange a part of the harvest,

if it is good.

In big brother China

a reform like this

led to a capitalist economy...

In Kim's Utopia as well,

children are curious by nature.

Ideologically neutral,

not yet aware

of what is allowed

and what isn't...

Strangers... what are

they doing here?

Curious yes... but you shouldn't

overdo it, of course...

Curious children... ...and then

all of a sudden: the doubt...

won't this get us in trouble?

The DMZ - a soldierfree strip of

land... the demilitarized zone,

crowded with soldiers,

strangely enough.

The blue barracks

are stil there.

Here, Koreans negociated

with Koreans for years.

But the family fight

is still stuck.

An ideological clash.

The North Koreans hang on

to their demands, like a pitbull.

GUARD SPEAKING KOREAN

The hall in which

the suspension of hostilities

was signed, is empty.

Two tables, two books,

two signatures.

It's a communist museum,

the last room on earth

where Marx is kept alive,

on a drip of words.

The red book is closed,

and you wonder if it ever

will be opened again.

Korea's past isn't over yet

by far.

North and South

hardly communicate,

the country seems to be

locked in its history.

We're looking at the

signature of the Great Kim.

In July '94 he wanted to talk

to the South.

The Sun of Humanity died from a

cardiac arrest a few hours later.

All this becomes too much

for our guide.

His tears drip

on neutral ground.

There are lots of

leaders in the world

but nobody such as Kim il Sung

Who passed away while walking

from his office to the train

EXPLAINING IN KOREAN

Today, just before the

Day of the Sun, there's

not one American to be

seen on the other side.

A boxing ring with no opponent.

It never came to a knock-out.

It's just a cease-fire,

it has been like that for

almost sixty years.

The DMZ meanders across the

Korean insula, like a curtain

keeping two big ideologies

away from each other.

Natural disasters have struck the country

for the past few years.

The papers say that,

according to Pyongyang,

that's a natural way

for nature to respond

to the shocking death

of the Great Leader.

Even nature suffers the loss.

Kim il Sung, the Invincible

Commander with the Iron Will,

fought the Japanese.

There are 563 bronze statues,

scattered over the country.

A multiple Golden Calf.

Is it allowed to make a

picture of the statue?

Certainly, the guide says.

But the whole of the statue

has to be on it.

One foot or arm missing -

and the picture has to

be deleted on the spot.

Those are the rules.

Kapsida! The guides are calling.

Kapsida, hurry up!

We're not allowed to be

standing still too long.

Certainly not for filming...

Every village is rehearsing,

concerts in the honour of the

Great Leader s birthday.

A student orchestra, the

girls choir, a men's choir.

Everything is inspected

to perfection.

A country full of instructions,

multiple perfectionism.

Is your Kim pin straight!?

Ten soloists, all in gowns,

surrounded by smart suits.

Rehearsing for the big festival

on the Day of the Sun.

There will be festivities all

over the country, in the

honour of the Invincible General

with the Golden Heart...

Do we recognize the voice of

the well-known anchor woman?

Reciting is drama in North Korea.

Touched voices, full of dedication

for the higher purpose.

The world famous face

of the state television,

Ri Chun-Hee, takes the lead...

overwhelmed by grief,

resolute or heroic...

Ri never studied journalism,

she trained to be an actress...

Evening... the peace and quiet

have returned to the square.

The people walk or cycle home.

But of course you

don't cycle past the statue

of the Great Leader...

there you get off your bicycle.

Walk a few yards, and then

you just cycle on.

That's what is called respect.

If you don't want

to walk, you cycle

around the square

in a wide circle.

Neither do you fold a paper

containing a photograph of Kim

which is any paper.

A fold in Kim's face

shows no respect

so the guide warns us...

And when there's a power failure,

leaving the city in the dark,

the spotlights will remain

shining on the bronze Kim.

The next morning...

the square wakes up.

With a three-four time.

A walz, a light opera.

An appeal to get to work

in good spirits.

Produce has to be increased,

for the village, for the country,

and the party.

The field of the cooperative

is my field!

Once in a while you catch

a glimpse of the time

before the Kims.

Authentic sculptures and

buildings, centuries old sometimes,

often from Buddhist origin.

Succesfully restored, thanks to

the generous support... of Kim.

Are they still in use?

Certainly, the guide says.

On our way we also see a

Christian church and a mosk.

Everybody is free to profess his

religion, the guid says again.

We count precisely

one Buddhist monk;

he's all the life and soul

we see of religion...

Korea is 1! No doubt about that.

North as well as South

want to be 1.

Also the entrance to Pyongyang

is clear about this. Korea is 1.

Tableaus everywhere, in the

street, in front of factories,

the picture of the future,

the ideal state.

The aggressor spied in

territorial waters.

Of course you shouldn't do

a thing like that.

Pyongyang hijacked the American

spy ship the Pueblo in January '68.

A trophy, triumphantly exhibited

for the sparse tourists.

I did it my way...

The Voice is back!

Would you believe,

here in Pyongyang,

Frank Sinatra isn't

under a taboo.

My Way, an ode to the

self-will of the individual,

in a country full

of collectivism.

A self-willed state,

that should be more like

Kim's Juche philosophy.

But this blushing face

evidently enjoys it... or still

is it the dutiful

repertoire for tourists?

The Big Day. The Day of the Sun,

Kim il Sung's 100th anniversary.

The Eternal President,

officially still

in power, celebrates

his birthday.

The founder of the Juche

ideology, which states that the

collective will of the people is

pressed together in the leader.

Every deed of the

Great Leader mirrors

the needs of the state

and the society.

Don't doubt that...

A festival in the park.

A three-four time again.

Looking at and being looked at.

Is this the spot, the festival

for the Koreans themselves?

Are we crossing the set, or

are we the set ourselves?

men everywhere... with

a mobile phone...

mobile phone codes,

watching us, code 007...

This is where the

birthday boy lies today.

Balmed, shoes polished,

hair combed.

He doesn't receive any

visitors today,

hardly are we allowed to watch

from this distance.

We are filming the military

parade.

A soldier in impressive cap

ticks our shoulders...

inspection.

He wants to see our camera,

see what we have filmed.

We have to delete a

number of shots.

What is it that we are

not allowed to see?

This cheerful military show is

on television all over the world,

with the sanctioned footage

of the state television.

Or are we inadvertently

filming state secrets,

are these missiles

loaded after all?

A confusing contrast...

this charming smile.

Is this openness?...

Or shyness?

...and this man even

thanks us, ka amsamida!

Then suddenly a

glimpse of fury...

that man on the right...

he is distrustful and

sets a soldier at us...

Not a festive day without a

visit to the flower show.

A big hall full of... indeed...

Kimjongilias and Kimilsungias.

A begonia and an orchyd

named after the two Kims.

Neither isn't the

missile lacking

The Tepondong was launched

on Friday 13th...

What all these people do

not yet know,

is that it came down

again in less than a minute,

and only caused no

more than a small

ruffle on the

Exchange of Seoul.

The idea was to play songs

from the universe, to

tribute to the glory of

the Great Leader Kim.

Later that day the Korean state

television came with

the affirmation

that the launch had failed...

and that's what is new,

because the nation doesn t

very easily admit its

failure in front of 23

million inhabitants.

Will Kim Jong Un's

glasnost start here?

Fireworks in Pyongyang.

One hundred years of Kim.

The personality cult

reaches its climax.

A phenomena that we in the

West are suspicious about.

Whatever the North Koreans

thought about them,

the first two Kims also offered

certainty in their lives.

This has gone now and mistrust

of the outside world is great.

No North Korea without

trust in the leader...

so the Kim dynasty

is continued.

The spectacle starts

at a quarter to eight.

A few seconds before

that all the lights in

every building in Pyongyang

are switched off

in less than no time...

The ultimate control.

Today is a joyful day.

Today it turns out that a

second Kim has been placed.

Two bronze statues.

Kim Jong il next to

father Kim il Sung.

Or even, the statue

of the father

has been replaced by a

less stern version.

Kim with glasses, more modern

coat, more frivolous.

Food for the Pyongyang watcher.

And this... this shows

a face of the future,

nowhere near bronze...

Kim il Sung Square, Pyongyang.

The day after.

All people are equal,

in a classless state.

Some are a touch more dark.

They work and plod on the land.

Others have a light complexion,

subtly protected by a parasol.

In this Kim Farm, as in

George Orwell s Animal Farm,

all people are equal,

and some are more

equal than others.

Sangun - army first.

With this adage Kim Jong il gave

the military its elite status.

Not imagination, not the

economy, but soldiers rule

the country.

Learn young, learn fair,

if you want to cuddle

up against power you can

never start too early,

many a mother thinks.

Recently Kim Jong Un also put

economists in high places.

New understandings, even

a constitutional reform.

But... how are you going to

dress your child like an economist?

Badges. Chests full of badges,

the people look proud

and well-to-do.

But lately Kim Jong Un openly

admitted what everybody knows:

the North Korean economy

isn't really flourishing.

After a long history

of oppression

Pyongyang has turned its back

to the rest of the world,

with poverty as a consequence.

For years the country has been

trying to be self supporting.

But, Kim Jong Un also expresses

through the state media,

it is important to raise the

living standard of the people.

North Koreans are

brave, revolutionary,

they fought their freedom

from foreign aggressors.

Kim's people s army drove

the Japanese out,

and founded the Democratic

People s Republic of Korea.

Since then they look

forward confidently

and militantly to

a bright future.

But... the Korean is

also a day tripper.

An excursion to the bronze

statues on the Mansudae Hill...

they show their respect,

and bow for both Kims.

Or even more fun:

a wedding picture, under

the approving look

of the Great Leader.

Or a happy family photo...

Against Pyongyang's skyline

there s a colourful parade of people,

dressed in their Sunday best.

Traditional gowns, but also

women in woman's suits,

smartly cut, men in more

loose stilish costumes.

Strikingly beautiful supple fabric,

dark colours or fiery red.

Women walking in fashionable

platform-soled shoes...

For us fashion is a way to be

different as an individual.

What is it like in the empire

of the Great Leader Kim?

Is it possible to

be an individual here?

It doesn't look like it.

Everything turns

around the collective,

everybody dresses rather

uniformly, stylish but uniformly

A people with a collective will.

And everybody is included,

that's the other side of it...

But, very remarkable:

even the women

soldiers are parading

in high heeled shoes.

'The less one knows,

the more one is going to suspect',

Macchiavelli already said.

There are lots of myths

about North Korea.

Pyongyang's underground is said

to have only a few stations.

A show for foreigners,

with extras by authority,

as in a real life soap

There s a huge crowd, like

in Paris, London or New York

the old Chinese carriages ride

on a frequent schedule and are packed.

With commuters, so it seems.

Some glass windows bear scratchings...

it looks like graffiti.

But that is improbable

in Pyongyang.

How far does the underground go?

We don t know, we get off

at the third stop...

However isolated the

North Koreans live,

they do want to be reckoned

with in the world.

Certainly they shouldn't

be looked down upon.

That wouldn't be right.

So their Arch of Triumph in

Pyongyang measures 59 yards,

over three yards higher

than the one in Paris.

Also quite something

is the monument

for the founding of

the Labour Party.

The hammer, the sickle.

But a paint brush as well:

the intellectual and the artist

count in Kim's workers paradise,

big brother China can

learn a lesson here.

Apparently this monument

is a sensitive spot.

All of a sudden we

see these men again,

inconspiculously

NOT twittering...

for they're not on Twitter,

their phones only work in an

internal North Korean network.

The North Korean state circus...

we're not allowed to film.

Why not?

Our guide whispers:

'our circus is good, but maybe

not yet perfect.

If you film a mistake, the

Western world will use this

to make us look ridiculous.'

The perfect show we watch

takes our breath away.

An artistic expression of

the ultimate makability.

Traveling through North

Korea - it is possible.

We experienced Kim's

ideal state,

the sets Pyongyang

allowed us to see.

Slices of Life.

But have we seen North

Korean life as it is?

Traveling through a country

where the past isn't over yet by far.

An amputated country,

wishing above all to be

one again, one Korea.

But that must be one

workers paradise.

Pyongyang is in fear of the

economic power of Hyundai

and Samsung, LG, Kia,

Daewoo, Ssanyong --

South Korean firms, some of which

use North Korean labour

for their production -

just over the border.

Foreign currency

Pyongyang can't resist.

About 40.000 North Koreans earn

an average of 160 dollars a month

- one fifth of what a South

Korean worker would have earned.

A capitalist enclave to keep

up the communist ideals.

A traumatised country,

a traumatised people, isolated.

But also proud and self-confident.

We wanted to see how people

live there, life as it is.

People as they are,

authentic human beings,

what do they think, what do they

feel, what are their wishes?

They were unapproachable for us...

We are leaving Wonderland,

pop down a rabbit-hole again and

fall back into the other world.

A world where everything

reasonably is what it looks like...

North Korea is an idea.

A timeless country,

locked in its history.