The Red Chapel

Reporter-director Mads Brügger sets up North Korea’s culturati, rigified by the military dictatorship, and persuades two unusual performance artists to perform at an international festival in Pyongyoang. Their confusing show baffles the host country’s staid dance experts, but the production, which started out as a bad joke, can no longer be stopped.

A strange game begins where all roles get mixed up. The director is taken by the propaganda machine's flattery, and the hosts want to hone a strained play into shape. International guests must be exploited to the fullest, even if they are original and handicapped – both qualities the state does not tolerate.

The film starts out lightly but gradually raises more serious questions: What fate do the handicapped have in North Korea? What lies in the backyard of a beautiful, finely tuned system? The audience already knows the answer.

Erkko Lyytinen | Translation by Anna Volmari