Everyone of any political stripe knows that North Korea is one of the worst – if not the worst – dictatorship on the planet. For even as we have plenty of other hostile nations to choose from, extending from the overtly aggressive enemies of nations like Iran to the more subtle threat of Vladimir Putin in the questionably democratic Russia, North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il has ruled with such an iron fist and for so long that hardly anyone from the West ever gets to see inside the nation and no truly in-depth, legitimate footage or information of what life is like there ever seems to get out.
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But tonight through Thursday, anyone who is curious about what life is like in that insanely repressive regime can find a rare – literally one-of-a-kind – opportunity to see what goes on inside the borders of that nation, as LA’s Downtown Independent movie theater finishes a one-week-only run of “The Red Chapel,” a film that does not appear to be available on video in the United States. And better yet, the filmmakers behind this incredible film manage to do their expose in a way that blends the harrowing sadness of its citizens’ lives with staggeringly funny moments of outright satirical sabotage against the regime.
The fascinating and richly entertaining results parallel the work of “Borat” and “Bruno” mastermind Sacha Baron Cohen, but here the stakes are literally life and death if the filmmakers get caught. And the filmmakers pull off their achievement with taste rather than tastelessness, and do so in the service of a profound and daring mission: to shame the regime before the eyes of the free world.
In my nearly two years of reviewing films for Big Hollywood, I have never felt more compelled to encourage all those who love freedom to see a movie as much as I have this one. And due to the near-guerrilla nature of this film and the fact that the Downtown Independent is a nonprofit with almost no marketing budget, this film was hopelessly under-attended this weekend.
“The Red Chapel” is a 2009 Danish documentary in which a Danish native (a Caucasian man named Mads Brugger) roped in two South Korean-born men (Simon Jul Jorgensen and Jacob Nossell) who were adopted and raised by Danish families and are now popular Danish comedians, to pretend to be an arts trio called the Red Chapel. Even that name has a secret meaning, as it was the code name for Soviet actors who spied on the Nazis prior or during WWII by pretending to perform as a cultural exchange and reporting on German secrets from each of their tour stops.
Mads wants to sneak cameras into North Korea and show Pyongyang and anything else he can shoot to reveal on an unprecedented scale the pure evil of what he terms “the most evil dictatorship ever created.” At the same time, once they get accepted by the North Korean government, the performers reveal that their “show” is in fact a purposeful disaster.
Relying on fart noises from whoopie cushions, off-key singing, terrible acting of children’s fables like “The Princess and the Pea,” their goal is to humiliate the government officials who allowed them to enter, while acting like they have good intentions but simply lack talent. One of the comics, Jacob happens to be a “spastic” (his term, though his condition appears to be akin to Cerebral Palsy) and can not be understood by anyone but his friends.
The fact that he’s disabled helps them get into the country, as the North Korean government is eager to use him as propaganda showing they don’t hate disabled people. Mads’ narration notes that it’s long been rumored that the nation’s disabled babies get aborted or murdered right after birth, or sent to camps to die of neglect. The filmmakers’ advantage with having Jacob along is that he can say what’s really on his mind without the North Korean “minders” and spies understanding him, so he can say that their buildings look awful or food tastes like crap without getting busted, leaving the audience of the film to laugh later now that it’s translated on screen for us. (It’s like “Borat” with an anti-Soviet agenda).
They come up with shocking disturbing footage of daily life, and show how their spy/’minder’ breaks down wailing when asked how she feels about the founder of North Korea, Kim Jong Il’s father. While Mads’ narration explains that they know she’s saying she’s crying out of love for the man’s presence, but in reality is crying because she has to let out her true emotions sometime or go mad.
They also show how little kids are brainwashed in the schools, how the filmmakers are subtly spied on throughout their visit, and how Jacob gets more and more marginalized in his own show because the NK’s actually are deeply prejudiced against the disabled. And yet there is humor and hope and defiance running throughout, a strain of power that pays off triumphantly in the end.
Thankfully, this daring trio of filmmakers made it out alive and were able to share their vision with the rest of the world. Sadly, American filmgoers have received almost no opportunity to see the results.
If you’re really someone who cares about film but also cares about freedom and showing the truth and encouraging more such efforts like “The Red Chapel,” and you live in the Los Angeles area, it is very important to go support this film and the Downtown Independent theatre. Let your vote be heard at the box office and perhaps they can experience a turnaround that can bring the film back or garner it exposure elsewhere across the nation.
“The Red Chapel” plays tonight (Mar. 8) at 7 p.m., Wed. at 4:30 p.m. and Thursday at 7 p.m. at the Downtown Independent Theater, 251 S. Main St. in Los Angeles. Admission is $10.
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