Movie: The Red Chapel

I stumbled across the Tri-Contentinent Human Rights Festival, now in its 8^th year, at Rosebank while waiting for the traffic to subside on Friday afternoon.

The Red Chapel is a documentary made by a Danish reported, posing as a theatrical director, who takes two Danish comedians (of Korean descent) to North Korea on the pretext of a cultural exchange program. One of the comedians, Jacob, suffers from Cerebral Palsy; which creates two contrasting points in the documentary - firstly his speech impediment allows Jacob to truly express his feelings in Danish without anyone else understanding; and secondly, it contrasts with the rest of North Korea where there does not seem to be any other handicapped person around.

While the documentary's aim is to expose the dark evilness of North Korea, I found that, in many respects the movie fails and it is largely due to the director, Mads Brügger. Mads comments in the film, that he has no moral qualms about anything to do with North Korea - and thus forces both comedians (Jacob and Simon) to do things they are clearly not in favour of doing. Furthermore, while Mads comments on various claims (which are most likely to be true), such as death camps and starving children; the documentary has no supporting evidence to back up its claims. Another problem with Mads' thesis, is that, he gives no credit to the actual talent on show from North Korea - especially children that ends up participating with the team; and instead seems to brush it off as simply a product of the evil regime.

All said, the documentary still provides a fascinating insight into North Korea - and a great example of media and propaganda management. There are many touching moments within the movie - especially the interaction between Jacob and the translator/minder from North Korea; but in my opinion, it does not really serve as documentary evidence of North Korea's evilness.