Welcome to North Korea!
72' (Czech Republic, North Korea)
Director: Linda Jablonska
Producers: Milan Kuchynka
Description:
In its catalog, a Czech travel agency offers a “journey into the unknown,” a tour of North Korea. This spring was the second time since 1990 that a group of Czech tourists set foot in the DPRK. The film follows twenty-seven Czechs who have decided to spend approximately 2,600 Euros on a sightseeing tour of a country that cultivates a cult of personality, maintains concentration camps for its citizens, and doesn’t hide its development of nuclear weapons. Foreign visitors are only allowed a view of a carefully prepared illusion, thoroughly supervised by “guides.” What is more, the North Korean system is starkly reminiscent of the Czech tourists’ own past. Which emotions do these travelers experience: sympathy, nostalgia or, in contrast, happiness that “we already have this behind us?” How does a Czech person, after being accustomed to eighteen years of freedom and democracy, come to terms with the directives and restrictions of a totalitarian system?
Biography:
Linda Jablonska was born in Prague. She finished her studies at the Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts, Prague, with the documentary Kupředu levá, kupředu pravá, which was launched in Czech cinemas. She works predominantly as a documentary and popular programs director for Czech Television. Her films include Horko v. Česku, a documentary on the debate in the Czech Republic about global climate change; Doma tady a teď, a film about immigrants in the Czech Republic for the IOM organization; Kupředu levá, kupředu pravá, about young politicians that was released in Czech cinemas; as well as Neřízená střela Stella and Hovorově Horňas.
Contact Information:
Aerofilms, s.r.o
Zuzana Pudilová,
Vodičkova 41
Praha 1 110 00
E-mail: info@aerofilms.cz
Web site: www.aerofilms.cz/filmy/129-Vitejte-v-KLDR/
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