In the sun's rays

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Movie
German title In the sun's rays
Original title В лучах солнца /
W lutschach solnza
Country of production Russia , Germany , Czech Republic , Latvia , North Korea
original language Korean
Publishing year 2015
length 106 minutes
Age rating FSK 6
Rod
Director Vitali Manski
production Natalja Manskaja, Simone Baumann, Filip Remunda
music Karlis Auzans
camera Alexandra Ivanova, Mikhail Gorobchuk
cut Andrei Peperny

In the ray of the sun ( Russian В лучах солнца W lutschach solnza , Czech V paprscích slunce , English Under the Sun ) is a documentary by the Russian-Ukrainian director Vitali Manski from 2015. The film premiered on October 29, 2015 on the International Leipzig Festival for Documentary and Animated Film . The official German theatrical release was on March 10, 2016. The first showed the film on October 19, 2016 under the title Inside North Korea .

action

The 8-year-old girl Zin-mi (Sin Mi) lives with her parents in the North Korean capital Pyongyang . The film team accompanies her in her everyday life for a year - on her way to school, at dinner with her parents or an important school performance - and documents the professional backgrounds of father and mother. Zin-mi is working diligently towards her imminent admission to the Socialist Youth Association , with which she will become a full member of the socialist state on the day of the shining star (the birthday of the former dictator Kim Jong-il ).

background

Manski received official filming permission, but was under constant government control. This provided a precise script with dialogues for the “documentary”, selected locations and interview partners, and posted watchdogs on the set who directed the scenes. The filmmakers weren't allowed to speak to the family directly, but someone on the camera team understood Korean, which the guardians didn't notice.

At the end of each day of shooting, the film team had to hand over the raw material for inspection and later got it back censored. In order to circumvent the censorship, the cameramen let the cameras run between the settings specified by the North Korean watchdogs. In addition, the camerawoman often went to the toilet during filming because of “stomach problems” and there copied the recordings onto new memory cards, which were then smuggled out of North Korea. According to other sources, it was recorded on two memory cards at the same time. One of the memory cards was handed over to the North Korean censors, the other was tucked into her pants by the cameraman in the toilet and could thus be smuggled out of the country. In this way, the creation of the productions and arrangements could be documented and Manski was able to expose the propaganda machinery of a totalitarian state.

A total of 75 days of filming were guaranteed as part of three North Korea trips. The third entry was no longer permitted for unclear reasons, so that in the end only 45 days of filming remained. After the film was completed, the North Korean government tried to prevent its release. The North Korean Foreign Ministry sent a complaint to the Russian Foreign Ministry, which was a production partner, seeking a ban on showing the film.

The film curator of the Museum Sally Berger canceled the screening of the film planned for the Doc Fortnight festival of the Museum of Modern Art in February 2016 at short notice for fear of cyber attacks . After an interview with the Leipzig producer Simone Baumann in the New York Times , the museum announced the employee.

On May 19, 2016, the North Korean mouthpiece Arirang-Meari criticized the film, which "deeply offends the goodwill of North Koreans". In the article, Zin-mi's family condemned the entire project because it had exploited the young actress' lack of experience, had come about under false pretenses and thus an "anti-North Korean film" had emerged. The mother claimed that Manski staged the scenes with her daughter. She thought it was going to be a documentary for the purpose of friendly cooperation with North Korea and didn't know Manski was such a black-minded person.

Manski 2014 in North Korea

“I wanted to make a film about real life in North Korea. But there is no real life there as we know it. There is only a certain idea of ​​the 'right' life. Our film actually shows a great deception. "

- Vitali Manski

In addition to Germany, the film was also used in theaters in the USA, Japan, South Korea, Poland, Latvia and the Czech Republic.

In the USA the film is distributed by the New York company Icarus Films .

criticism

“The veteran director turned the given restrictions into a huge advantage by simply dropping the fourth wall, exposing the sheer brutality of the North Korean state machine and the miserable state of society. In this way Manski grasps exactly how the state apparatus works. "

- Vladan Petkovic : Cineuropa

"A fascinating study of state propaganda and the dark truth that lurks behind it."

- Stephen Dalton : Hollywood Reporter

Awards

The film was shown (as of November 2016) at 54 international festivals on 5 continents and received 13 prizes, including:

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Release certificate for In the ray of the sun . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry (PDF). Template: FSK / maintenance / type not set and Par. 1 longer than 4 characters
  2. ↑ In the sun's ray. In: filmportal.de. German Film Institute , accessed on June 29, 2020 .
  3. ^ Salzgeber & Co. Medien GmbH: press release. P. 3.
  4. ^ Graham Winfrey: Tricking the Government. How to Shoot a Documentary in North Korea. IndieWire, July 7, 2016.
  5. ^ A b c Brian Todd, Dugald McConnell: Propaganda film project backfires on North Korea. CNN , June 23, 2016.
  6. ^ Steven Borowiec: 'Under the Sun' documentary catches North Korea with its guard down. In: Los Angeles Times , July 6, 2016.
  7. ^ Graham Winfrey: MoMA Assistant Film Curator Sally Berger Fired After 30 Years. IndieWire, June 15, 2016.
  8. ↑ 윤수미: 5 월 5 일 을 잊지 못 하겠다. 남조선 당국자 는 내 딸 을 모욕 말라. (German: I will never forget May 5th . I will not let employees of the South Korean state insult my daughter. ) Arirang-Meari (German: Arirang- Echo ), May 19th Juche 105 (2016); accessed on October 21, 2016.
  9. ^ JH Ahn: North Korean media slams critical Russian film. North Korea News, May 19, 2016.
  10. ↑ Carmen Gray: Russian film exposes the workings of North Korea's propaganda machine. In: The Guardian , December 2, 2015.
  11. ↑ Release info in the Internet Movie Database (English).
  12. ^ Icarus Films: Under the Sun. Retrieved November 5, 2018.
  13. ↑ Vladan Petkovic: Under the Sun. Life rehearsed and staged. Cineuropa, November 2, 2015.
  14. ↑ Stephen Dalton: "Under The Sun" ("V lutsah solntsa"). Film review. Hollywood Reporter, Nov. 20, 2015.
  15. ^ Deckert Distribution GmbH: Under the Sun. Page of the film with world distribution with a list of festivals and prizes; Retrieved November 9, 2016.
  16. ↑ Mezinárodní festival dokumentárních filmů Ji.hlava: Under the Sun. Retrieved November 5, 2018.
  17. ↑ 19th Pimedate Ööde Film Festival: Awards 2015. Accessed on November 5, 2018.
  18. ↑ Hong Kong International Film Festival: Awards 2016. Documentary Competition. ( Memento from June 17, 2016 in the Internet Archive ).
  19. ↑ 10th Ânûû-rû Âboro Film Festival: 2016 Awards list. Retrieved November 5, 2018.
  20. ↑ APSA Nominees & Winners 2016: Under the Sun (V Luchakh Solnca). Retrieved November 5, 2018.