Archive of films Under the Sun / V paprscích slunce

Russia / Germany / Czech Republic / Latvia / North Korea
2015, 106 min

Section: Czech Films 2015–2016
Year: 2016

The renowned documentarist gets the go-ahead to record the life of an ordinary North Korean family. To what extent will he be able to observe what goes on behind the screen of pervasive communist ideology? Unique footage that probes deep into one of the most heavily guarded places on Earth.

Synopsis

Zin-Mi is both excited and flustered as she prepares for supreme leader Kim Jong-il’s birthday celebrations. She gets all the help she needs from her well-situated parents – a factory engineer and an exemplary employee of a prosperous company. While this image of the model family might appear relatively untarnished, just like everything else in a closed communist country, it bows to the dictates of propaganda. The supervised crew were given the go-ahead to film in North Korea on condition that they wouldn’t deviate from the approved script. With the aim of conveying the reality of life in the DPRK, however, respected director Vitaly Mansky decided to leave his camera rolling beyond his prescribed shooting schedule, thus exposing the extent of the manipulation involved in staging the various events. The outcome is a formally refined piece which somewhat uncomfortably reveals the underside of an official rendering that clings to iconography, mythmaking and distorting idealisation. The film also considers the crucial value of human freedom, something that can’t always be taken for granted.

Sandra Hezinová

About the director

Vitaly Mansky (b. 1963, Lviv, USSR) studied cinematography at Moscow’s VGIK (1990). He began making films in the late 1980s and, since then, he has won over fifty awards during his career, including a Silver Dove at the Leipzig festival and Best Documentary Film over 30 minutes at Karlovy Vary (Pipeline). He is the publisher of the oldest internet documentary film magazine and the author of the manifesto Reality Cinema. He has been president of the Artdokfest film festival in Moscow since 2006. Selected filmography: Jewish Happiness (1991), Private Chronicles. Monologue (1998), Vladimir Putin. The Leap Year (2001), Anatomy of t.A.T.u. (2003), Virginity (2008), Sunrise/Sunset. Dalai Lama 14 (2008), Nikolina Gora. Epilogue (2009), Motherland or Death (2011), Pipeline (2013).

Contacts

Hypermarket Film s.r.o.
Myslíkova 28, 110 00, Praha 1
Czech Republic
E-mail: [email protected]
www: www.hypermarketfilm.cz

Deckert Distribution
Gottschedstr. 18, 04109, Leipzig
Germany
Tel: +49 341 215 6638
E-mail: [email protected]
www: www.deckert-distribution.com

Bontonfilm, a.s.
Na Poříčí 1047/26, 110 00, Praha 1
Czech Republic
Tel: +420 257 415 111
Fax: +420 257 415 113
E-mail: [email protected]
www: www.bontonfilm.cz

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About the film

Color, DCP

Section:	Czech Films 2015–2016

Director:	Vitaly Mansky
Screenplay:	Vitaly Mansky
Dir. of Photography:	Alexandra Ivanova
Music:	Kārlis Auzāns
Editor:	Andrei Paperny
Producer:	Natalia Manska
Production:	Vertov Studio
Coproduction:	Hypermarket Film, Česká televize, Saxonia Entertainment, MDR
Sales:	Deckert Distribution
Contact:	Hypermarket Film s.r.o.
Distributor:	Bontonfilm, a.s.

Guests

Vitaly Mansky

Festival Organizer, Film Director, Producer

Filip Remunda

Film Director, Producer

Martin Melichar

Producer