초록 열기/닫기 버튼
A variety of films of various genres depict the “real” North Korea, or otherwise claim to show viewers aspects of North Korea that have been hidden before. The films to be analyzed here are 1) UK documentary A State of Mind, 2) UK-North Korea-Belgium co-produced fictional film Comrade Kim Goes Flying, 3) Russian documentary Under the Sun, and 4) South Korean fictional film Over the Border. I argue that together these films advance a visual sociology and anthropology of 2000s and 2010s North Korea through a balance of reflecting and amplifying North Korean social ideals for a foreign audience (1 and 2), and introducing contradictions and hybridity (3 and 4). After addressing the positionalities of the filmmakers, the sociocultural conditions at the times of the films’ productions, and the ways that each film illustrates “reality” through narrative qualities and indexical and iconic visuals, I conclude with a brief discussion of the educational value of showing these films separately or in combination for teaching a visual anthropology or sociology of North Korea.
