Original subtitles

(speaking in foreign language)

- [Narrator] The passing of time

has not made it any easier.

It has always been complicated to talk about North Korea.

Somehow, judgment has been passed.

The country is beyond repair.

Everyone camps on their preconception

of what the Democratic People's Republic of Korea is.

Orwell, paranoia, schizophrenia,

gulags, a red dynasty,

the tubby leader who loved watching movies

and hated being so short,

and his chubby son with his weird haircut.

(soft music)

On top of that comes the terrible threat

of the country and its nuclear weapons,

weapons that will make all the other frightened,

disarmed, and innocent nations tremble with fear.

But why?

Why is any kind of exaggeration acceptable

to describe what is already a difficult

and often tragic situation,

even by those who only seek to damn the country?

People are constantly reminding us

that it's impossible to go there, which makes us suspicious.

And if we do actually get there,

we're told we won't see anything.

And if we do see something,

in any case it's fake because they hide the truth.

Somebody once tried to convince us

that there were no skyscrapers in Pyongyang.

And at that time, one of us was living

on Gwangbok Avenue in a 24th floor flat.

He was taken aback.

Had he been levitating the whole time?

(soft music)

This film was shot over a period of eight years

by three people, one of them is a Korean translator.

Between us, we have made over 40 trips to North Korea.

And yet, this film will show no prison camps

and no missile ramps, totally off limits.

And don't forget that in North Korea,

you are also forbidden to film soldiers,

building sites, supermarkets,

gambling, people without enough food to eat,

and sometimes even people eating,

which is difficult to avoid.

But while getting to North Korea is complicated,

it's not true that you can't travel there,

as long as you accept being escorted almost all the time.

It's not true that visitors are asked to swear allegiance.

It's not true that they only show what they want to.

And it's untrue to say you never hear laughter

in North Korea. (man grunting)

(all laughing)

- I'm this close.

(bright music)

(horn honking)

- In North Korea, the roadways are a bumpy ride.

As soon as you leave the city,

the concrete slabs are riddled with cracks and potholes.

(horn honking)

Enough to disintegrate backbones and axles.

Thus, broken trucks and buses litter the hard shoulders.

(soft music)

(horn honking)

Depending on the season,

wheat, rice, and potatoes are harvested in the fields.

For beyond its countless mountains,

North Korea is above all a land of farming.

A land that dreams of self-sufficiency

one day, maybe.

So each viable square meter must be put to use,

even up the sides of the mountains.

Barely 20% of the land is arable.

(speaking in foreign language)

This factory was not filmed by Eisenstein in 1920,

but in 2016, with a small amateur camera,

the location scout in Hamhung

in the northeastern part of the country.

Pictures of North Korea are often misleading.

This is the largest fertilizer factory in the country,

once honored by over 30 visits from Kim Il-sung

and recently modernized to boost the productivity

of the corporate of farms,

typical farms like this one

with ox carts, geese and ducks, and multiple red flags.

(ducks quacking)

Another farm, a year later.

It's raining.

Everyone has gone off to seek shelter.

Only the production chart remains,

proudly displaying the farm's results.

(water splashing)

We found shelter in the living room of this farm worker.

She talks about her tough work,

freezing in winter, scorching in summer,

breaking her back in the rice fields.

(speaking in foreign language)

She tells us her son is 14, and adds I know he's small,

we've been through hard years.

He was born before the famine had ended.

Behind her on TV,

one of the countless historical melodramas

relating the tragic past of Korea

which led to the revolution.

And then, she broke into a passionate description

of her trips to Pyongyang.

(speaking in foreign language)

(woman laughing)

(bugs chirping)

(soft music)

Anyone from the provinces visiting the capital

is first obliged to pass through this place,

the house where Kim Il-sung was born,

the birthplace of the republic.

This is where it all started, they say.

The great leaders of revolution were training.

The resistance against the Japanese,

the struggle against the evil landowners

who collaborated and so on and so forth.

And as Kim Il-sung was himself son of an ordinary peasant,

he is both venerated and a role model.

As the seasons pass,

the decoration of the birthplace changes.

Quiet and sober in winter, it frames a dignified parade.

Here in 2011,

we see the first colored anoraks imported from China.

In 2015, intimidated schoolchildren

wear red name brand sweatpants,

though the sneakers don't quite make the grade.

In September come autumn hues

and a pumpkin on the thatched roof.

(speaking in foreign language)

In Pyongyang, everything is bigger,

the lady from the farm would say to herself,

more modern and more beautiful.

Here you can find more of everything,

more light, more shops, more food, more housing,

more work, more education, more culture.

How could anyone not want to live here?

The capital is more than the heart of the state,

it's the template.

She will be taught that these exemplary model buildings

are the homes of exemplary citizens,

scientists, soldiers, civil servants.

Some of the most honored ones live on the new

and highly publicized Future Scientists Street.

When you come from a village without even one paved road,

you stand in awe.

(soft music)

Imagine, people who live here

even seem to have loads of free time.

The lady from the farm is dazzled by these skyscrapers,

the most famous of which is in the shape of an atom,

and by the new neighborhoods springing up all over the city

erected by the sheer force

of the country's soldiers and workers.

There is little chance that she

will ever set foot in one of these flats,

reserved for the worthiest citizens.

Even if the inhabitants have fled the camera,

everything is neat and tidy.

From the balcony, the horizon opens,

revealing the real estate boom in the capital.

Note the colors which contrast

with the gray that prevailed 20 years ago.

The lady may never understand

the semi-legal real estate market

that has developed in the big cities in the past few years.

When the state gives its faithful followers a new flat,

they hurry to sell off the right to inhabit their old one.

The prices can reach over $100,000 for the best locations,

with the state pocketing a mere fraction in tax.

Marx might have called that

the primitive accumulation of capital.

(horn honking)

Her trip will end with a visit

to an amusement park or a water park.

Playgrounds for the people are one

of Kim Jong-un's priorities.

(water splashing) (kids screaming)

(whistle blowing)

The entrance is pricey, two euros,

but everybody mingles, everybody has fun just like children.

People slide, people laugh.

(all laughing)

(all screaming)

(soft music)

(water splashing)

(speaking in foreign language)

The provincials sometime seem a little lost in the crowd.

But since lots of visitors don't know how to swim,

nobody really notices.

In fact, the national TV channel

has started broadcasting swim lessons.

(bright music)

A giant screen plays concerts by the group Moranbong,

part pop rock girls' band, part military orchestra,

but most importantly, extremely popular.

(singing in foreign language)

(audience cheering)

(audience cheering) (water splashing)

Sunset is the moment for the last stop,

the central amusement park behind the Arc of Triomphe.

Like everywhere in Korea,

filming soldiers is banned, but difficult to avoid.

They are everywhere.

(crowd clamoring)

Bread and circuses, some might say.

But it's more than that.

Every Korean dreams of having the right

to live in Pyongyang and enjoy all this opulence.

Every inhabitant of the capital has one fear,

being expelled for some grave error or stupid mistake,

leading to them or their family being exiled

by the authorities for years, or their whole life,

to a place where they will have less of everything.

(dramatic music)

Pyongyang, with its lights and sights, inspires loyalty.

Some people really have fun in the parks and pools

of the most beautiful city in the country,

and even for them the world,

since theirs stops at North Korea's borders.

(soft music)

(speaking in foreign language) (water splashing)

So far, we haven't witnessed a birth in North Korea,

but many weddings, or rather their preparation.

Here, a wedding video shot by a professional

who is getting the happy couple

to pose in all the iconic sites of their city.

It's monsoon season,

38 degrees celsius, and extremely humid.

(speaking in foreign language)

The tour always starts with the leader's statues,

even if they're shrouded in fog.

After that, it's a la carte,

art studio, Juche Tower, the mausoleum, local viewpoints.

(formal music)

It ends in special banquet rooms

hired and decked out for the occasion.

The size depends on the family's wealth.

80 to 120 guests, rocket-shaped bottles of alcohol,

speeches and music.

(water splashing) (speaking in foreign language)

But what the video doesn't show

are all the other people who made this happy event possible.

(speaking in foreign language)

In North Korea, matchmakers are a common intermediary

in charge of introducing you to the ideal partner

for you and your family.

Almost as much as in the south,

arranged marriages are the norm rather than love matches,

with the result that people marry within their social class.

(bright music)

For decades, society's summit was filled

by the revolutionary comrades

of Kim Il-sung and their descendants.

At the bottom, of course,

the families of Japanese collaborators and their heirs.

Between the two, 40 odd subclasses with little hope

of marrying outside their rank.

But the sclerotic end of Kim Il-sung's regime,

the famine under Kim Jong-il,

and the partial disintegration of both state and party

that followed not only shook the country,

but also the social order.

The outcome was more freedom of choice concerning marriage.

Today, the most desirable professions are scientist,

diplomat, military officer,

and businessman, of course.

For years, the pretty policewomen who directed the traffic

were in high demand on the wedding market.

But they are gradually being replaced by traffic lights.

(children clamoring)

A couple will then have children

whose education will be taken care of

by the state from an early age on.

The country is 100% literate,

a success attributed with pride to the revolution.

The main subjects are maths, physics,

music, singing, Korean, and the lives of the great leaders.

The strict selection process starts from kindergarten,

the best pupils spend their holidays

doing sports in the pioneer camps,

which have always been a typical perk

in all socialist countries.

(singing in foreign language)

(speaking in foreign language)

When we arrived at the stadium,

the competition was in full swing,

each side supporting its team.

Note the absence of great leaders badges.

It's the holidays,

and under 16s are not obliged to wear them.

(singing in foreign language)

Then it's time for the tug of war.

(speaking in foreign language)

The evil American soldier in the middle is tough,

he's made it through several tournaments.

(whistle blowing)

(chanting in foreign language)

(speaking in foreign language)

(kids cheering)

(upbeat music)

(bright music)

Some pupils, students, and young couples,

will be given the chance to climb Mount Paektu.

A few years ago, we were able to go there by bus.

This extinct volcano is up in the north

on the Chinese border.

It is a sacred site.

Dangun, the mythical first Korean,

is said to have been born here

from the union between a god and a bear turned into a woman.

Kim Jong-il is said to have been born here, too,

although he was actually born

in Khabarovsk in the Soviet Union.

In short, it's still a site of pilgrimage.

Many youngsters walk several days to reach the summit.

(bright music)

(group clamoring)

At the top, high school students from the capital

in their khaki uniforms queue whilst waiting to descend

to the central lake in the egg-like pods

of a ski lift from an old mountain resort.

(wires creaking)

(group clamoring)

(woman laughing)

- Bye.

(singing in foreign language)

(soft music)

- [Narrator] Later, some of them

will go off to do their military service,

which can last one, two, or seven years,

and is known for being no picnic.

Young and tall foreign language speaking officers

will be sent to guard Panmunjom,

the armistice village so often seen on TV.

Caps or fur hats signal that the tensions

between the north and the south

are at their normal level, latent war.

Kevlar helmets signal a maximum state of alert,

which is not that rare.

(audience laughing)

Who is a good husband?

How to have a good career.

The people of Pyongyang are much more interested

in these topics than in the long litanies of propaganda.

Getting married is important,

and this is what the sitcoms broadcasted on the giant screen

near the central station are about.

Locals are ready to watch them

in the middle of December, tolerating -15 degrees celsius.

A country lass is hesitating between several suitors.

She's plucky, making fun of the army

and patriarchal authority.

The tone is cheeky, full of sexual allusions,

apparently far from accidental.

(speaking in foreign language)

This ad is for the Pyeonghwa car,

which means peace in Korean,

producing corporation with a South Korean firm

close to the Moon sect.

They are copies of Fiats.

(speaking in foreign language)

The sitcoms portray a politically correct world.

The individual only counts as part of a whole.

You have to be a good worker in your collective team.

And in winter, every single person

is responsible for cleaning a stretch of road

that has to be shoveled and swept, day and night,

regardless of the amount of snowfall,

hence these images of female employees

in high heels busy scraping ice off their patch of road

before heading to the office in the biting cold.

(soft music)

(somber music)

The endless war films on North Korean TV

contrast with this peace of mind.

The Korean resistance against the Japanese colonizers,

starring one of the many Kim Il-sung lookalikes,

the Korean War, the combat against spies,

movies and television always portray the country

on a war footing.

(singing in foreign language)

(bright music)

For some unknown reason, we had to wait for years

before our guards allowed us to film in parks.

(singing in foreign language)

Moranbong Park is the local central park,

everyone's favorite place for Sunday outings.

Are these someday painters a state a secret?

(speaking in foreign language)

Beyond fans of still life, what else can be seen?

Shooting ranges.

(gun firing) (electronic beeping)

Dances.

Lots of picnics.

On bank holidays,

the state sometimes hands out meat and beer.

(speaking in foreign language)

(singing in foreign language)

These pensioners are having a great time,

free from family and professional obligations.

Everyone dances in a style rather hard to define,

bizarre, almost shamanic.

(soft music)

It's strange, in 1956 the filmmaker Chris Marker

was part of the first French delegation

to visit the north after the Korean War,

had filmed almost identical scenes

danced by workers in a train factory.

(dramatic music)

(woman laughing) (speaking in foreign language)

(singing in foreign language)

A spontaneous singing competition

has sparked amongst these strollers.

(crowd applauding)

(speaking in foreign language)

In Korea, everyone knows all the songs.

Singing is communicating

and not singing is to be alone.

Unthinkable.

Who would be that antisocial?

(singing in foreign language)

(crowd applauding)

(soft music)

The neighborhood next to the park is nicknamed Dubai.

At first sight, it looks like a dormitory town.

Think again.

So many things can be found behind these tinted windows,

electronic stores, chemists, banqueting rooms,

supermarkets, and a huge selection of bars and restaurants.

(classical music)

(glasses clinking)

(crowd applauding)

(soft music)

This TV ad is singing the praises of a luxury supermarket,

so heavily air-conditioned the staff wear puffer jackets.

Everything is for sale.

Swiss chocolate, olive oil,

French and Italian wines, imported fruit.

The restaurants upstairs

target the (speaking in foreign language),

the money masters, as the nouveau riche are called here,

serving up sushi, cappuccino, a $20 steak.

North Korea is no longer an anti-consumerist state,

quite the opposite for those who can afford it.

(singing in foreign language)

(motor chugging)

(upbeat music)

There aren't many culinary critics

in the North Korean press as yet,

but given the number of restaurants, barbecue joints,

and snack bars around the country, it shouldn't take long.

Is it because everyone has all too vivid memory

of the Arduous March,

the famine that caused 500,000 to a million deaths

and ravaged the country from 1994 to 2000,

that they're looking to make up for it now?

Back then, even the word restaurant became obscene.

When Kim Jong-un came to power,

he promised the Koreans they

would never have to tighten their belts again.

So, they eat.

It's a sign of success, an obsession,

almost as much as in the south.

Excerpt from a press release

from the official North Korean news agency,

from the second to the fourth of April,

the 23rd Cooking Festival took place

at the House of Pasture in Pyongyang

marking the Day of the Sun,

the birthday of President Kim Il-sung.

(bright music)

Popular too are TV cooker shows,

competitions among housewives

to see who makes the best bibimbap,

and recipe apps on local iPads.

On the streets, small stands sell ice cream or donuts.

Most are sole traders, not entirely private,

they generally belong to a large public group

but are managed autonomously

and pocket the profits. (register whirring)

The head of South Korea's Secret Services

recently declared that 40% of businesses

in North Korea are autonomous.

That is as many as in Hungary and Poland

before the fall of the Berlin Wall.

(speaking in foreign language)

(horn honking)

(upbeat music)

This collective farm close to Sariwon,

100 kilometers south of Pyongyang,

produces mainly rice and vegetables.

It has 1,500 farm workers

split into small teams of four to six people.

In Korea, motorized cultivators are rare.

Even an ox is a luxury.

Before the last reforms,

the state took 70 to 80% of the production

from the people's communes.

Today, this farm keeps over 60%,

some of which will be sold

at one of the country's 400 free markets.

(bright music)

(motor rumbling)

Whilst filming out in the rice fields,

we heard music. (singing in foreign language)

(soft music)

(speaking in foreign language)

(all laughing)

(woman laughing)

At first we honestly thought

that this had all been put on for us,

but we checked and we were wrong.

This was the real deal,

a rehearsal also designed to encourage the peasant comrades.

(upbeat music)

(speaking in foreign language)

(singing in foreign language) (soft music)

On National Day, this amateur group will sing

in front of its people's commune.

Meanwhile in Pyongyang,

people will parade before the leader

to celebrate the foundation of the state 70 years ago.

Soon, North Korea will have been in existence

for longer than the Soviet Union.

(triumphant music)

If there is something North Koreans excel at, it's parades.

At each event, the world's military experts

agonize over which missile will show on which vehicle,

imported in violation of which UN sanction.

Others analyze the slogans

or the differences between parades

under Kim, the father, the son, and the grandson.

But one thing always remains,

the people will be shown cheering the leaders.

It takes weeks of training to make these living mosaics.

(all cheering) (bright music)

(upbeat music)

Normally, rehearsals should not be filmed.

North Korea only likes to show things that are finished,

be it a choir, a painting, a missile, or a reform.

But how not to?

Since 5:30 a.m., schoolchildren and students

have transformed every square in the city

into a rehearsal site for the next parade.

And since Pyongyang's traffic plan has all the main roads

power through Kim Il Sung Square,

and please be sure to slow down

in front of the portraits of the great leaders,

the temptation to get our telephones

and cameras out is hard.

Today is Sunday.

For years, the weekend was short,

Saturday being reserved for political education

and self-criticism sessions.

But from the mid-2000s, everything became more relaxed.

The weekend is a full weekend again.

(speaking in foreign language)

We watched the portraits watching us.

(bell dinging)

During our first trips here, we were like all foreigners,

obsessed by their omnipresence.

And then, the more we came, the less we noticed them.

The same doesn't go for North Koreans.

Cyclists dismount from their bikes

and turn to look at the statues of the leaders.

Cars slow down,

passersby turn their heads towards their effigies.

(soft music)

A young woman from the upper class

once tried to explain what she felt about the leaders.

This was just after Kim Jong-il's death.

It's a bit like you with your Jesus, she said.

Except for us, Jesus would also be one of the family.

In summer, when it was very hot,

more than once we saw a fan

cooling the portrait of the leaders.

(fan blowing)

And then nearby, more rehearsals for another parade

for another birthday with or without the leader.

A young man told us that when he was a boy,

all you had to do was have an elder

hand you his torch flame, symbol of the revolution

being passed on from generation to generation.

But for the last 10 years,

it has all become much more complicated.

You have now to compose moving giant letters,

which is much more stunning,

but woe betide you if you make a mistake.

(bright music)

North Korean art,

here a fresco at the entrance to a sports shoe factory,

is designed to portray the country

the way the party would like it to look.

It's never false, but often more of a dream than reality.

(soft music) (machine hissing)

In the Ryuwon factory, the weeping willow paradise,

700 workers, 70% of whom are women,

produce at their own pace 1.5 million sneakers a year.

For years,

local production is conspicuous in its conformity.

Now the factory clearly wants to draw inspiration

from the best styles made abroad.

In marketing speak, benchmarking.

(speaking in foreign language)

(happy music)

Copying foreign styles, reducing importations,

especially when they're struck by sanctions,

there are many good reasons for favoring local production.

But for the plan to work, people have to want it.

One new brand is called AdiBas with three stripes and a B.

In North Korea, nationalism is still a key sales driver.

Clothes-wise, progress seems more modest.

But in the early 1990s,

a foreign ministry magazine was still proudly defending

the goal of the monochrome society

somewhere between gray and brown.

Times have changed.

Let's visit the bowling alley.

(whimsical music)

Very popular in the 1980s,

bowling has recently become fashionable again.

(balls rolling)

(pins falling) (crowd cheering)

Upstairs, there are real slot machines.

Downstairs, a panorama of today's trends.

If it wasn't for these two slogans,

we could almost be anywhere in Asia.

This elegant young woman is an office worker.

(speaking in foreign language)

(crowd applauding)

(upbeat music)

(horn honking)

(insects chirping)

(bright music)

At this motorway rest area, a bus full of Chinese tourists

has stopped on its way to Kaesong, the border town.

(crowd clamoring)

In 2017, these visitors had all but disappeared

due to the sanctions.

In 2018, they are back.

Almost 1,000 Chinese tourists per day

drawn by the peace and quiet,

the nature, and sometimes a touch of nostalgia

for this country that reminds them of China 40 years ago.

It may seem strange,

but tourism trading is very popular in North Korea nowadays.

Ultimately, the country is hoping for 30% annual growth

in the number of visitors.

(water splashing)

Here and there, we stumble upon local tourists.

(singing in foreign language)

(women laughing)

(speaking in foreign language)

(women laughing)

(bright music)

In autumn, Wonsan Beach on the East Sea is deserted.

Out of season, all is calm.

Except for two soldiers, who for once we are allowed to film

due to their lack of uniform.

(whistle blowing) (crowd clamoring)

And here is the same beach in summertime.

On the right, the paying area.

On the left, the people's area,

which costs just a few pennies.

(water splashing)

Whether they're here with their work units,

fellow students, or the whole family,

everyone enjoys themselves.

(happy music)

(singing in foreign language)

People come by truck or on bicycles

for the day or for a week.

It's often the only chance

they're given to leave their workplace.

(speaking in foreign language)

On the horizon, one can see the dozens of future hotels,

another one of the current leader's priorities.

When Kim Jong-un met Donald Trump in Singapore,

the real estate expert found the location

and the views both amazing.

In 2015 and 2016 already,

North Korean delegations had discretely combed

the French Riviera and Mediterranean coasts

to see which kind of seaside resort

would be best adapted to their country.

The manager of a famous local fish restaurant

is delighted about these prospects.

(speaking in foreign language)

(woman laughing)

(bell dinging)

(soft music)

Unspoiled nature,

except of course in mining and nuclear regions.

Farming that's almost fertilizer-free due to the embargo.

Little light pollution

due to frequent electricity shortages.

It seems surprising that nobody

has suggested North Korea sell itself

as one of the world's number one organic countries.

Untouched for the past 65 years,

the DMZ has conserved world unique biodiversity.

But so far, this doesn't seem to be a card

Pyongyang wants to play, which is kind of a shame.

(speaking in foreign language) (happy music)

(energetic music)

Abroad, many people see North Korea as an anomaly.

It sees itself as a unique country,

which it certainly is.

What strikes us is the tireless repetition

of the same songs in schools and buses,

the same slogans in the streets, the same films on TV.

It all makes for a country that loves its isolation,

following its very own pace.

A country that's impenetrable,

frustrating, tiresome, but inhabited by Koreans

who are often curious and always full of life,

inhabitants who are changing fast, fast, hurry, hurry.

One of the Korean's favorite words

in both the north and the south.

Their tastes are changing, as are their expectations.

Who knows, maybe our vision of them will change too

one day.

(soft music)

(horn honking)