P8 FRIDAY, JANUARY 11, 2008 PREVIEW THE ARIZONA REPUBLIC A cinematic peek at life in North Korea JU.ii -v TV-" 1 "f-A 1 t' i 5 PHOTOS BY PRETTY PICTURES A patriotic rally is shown in The Schoolgirl's Diary. The movie often has a gritty, documentary feel except for when the characters interrupt a scene to burst into song, belting out their undying love for the "dear general," dictator Kim Jong-il. By Jenny Barchfield Associated Press PARIS The plot is pre-. dictable, the acting is maudlin and the ideology is spread on thick, but The Schoolgirl's Diary has something most B-movies don't The first North Korean film ever distributed commercially in the West, it provides a rare, if sugar-coated, glimpse of daily life in one of the world's most secretive and repressive nations. The Schoolgirl's Diary (flan Nyeohaksaengeui Ilgi in Korean) is the story of a rebellious high-schooler who questions her parents' values.
Soo Ryun rails against her absent father, a scientist who puts the good of the nation before that of his family, and her hardworking, submissive mother. Screenwriters reportedly got help drafting the script from North Korea's reclusive and autocratic leader Kim Jong-il, who wields absolute power, tolerates no dissent and demands unquestioning allegiance from his people. It's not giving too much away to say the misguided heroine, played by 18-year-old Pak Mi-hyang, is brought back into the fold just in time for a tearful conclusion. Still, what it lacks in surprises, the film makes up for in novelty value. Each year, North Korea's state-controlled film industry makes a handful of movies, most barely watchable vehicles for official propaganda.
Western breakthrough Only a few of them have been seen outside the country. Last month's French premiere of The Schoolgirl's Diary marked the first time a North Korean movie had been shown in theaters elsewhere, except for a few friendly communist countries, such as China and Cuba, according to Antoine Coppola, author of several books on Korean cinema. "North Korea feels if mis- The groundbreaking film glosses over North Korea's entrenched famine; its characters are healthy and brightly dressed. understood," Coppola said in a telephone interview. "This is the regime's way of communicating with the world, their way of setting the record straight." North Korea has long had a tense relationship with neighbors South Korea and Japan, and with the West.
In 2002, President Bush lumped North Korea into an "axis of evil" with Iran and Saddam Hussein's Iraq, though relations with Washington have improved somewhat since the country agreed to dismantle its nuclear program. The country still draws fire from human-rights advocates, who denounce its detention of tens of thousands of political prisoners, the torture of people who try to flee abroad, severe restrictions on expression and religion, and its use of the death penalty, even for political crimes. "There are systemic violations of rights to life," said Rajiv Narayan, an Amnesty International researcher on film "propaganda light." "Sure, it has all your traditional and obvious Maoist themes, but it also has a certain charm," he said. Velaise discovered The Schoolgirl's Diary at the 2006 Pyongyang Film Festival, where he was the among the few foreigners. Pleasantly surprised by the film's quality, he set about buying the distribution rights a complicated process in a country known for its top-heavy bureaucracy.
Approval from top Because of strictly limited Internet access in North Korea, "it was all done by ping-ponging faxes in fuzzy English back and forth," Velaise said, adding that he was sure approval for the deal came from the very top. "It couldn't be done without the blessings of Kim Jong-il," said. A renowned movie buff who reportedly has a personal film library, Kim is "Mr. North Korean cinema," Velaise said. "His name's not on the credits, but everyone was telling us he contributed to the script and editing of Schoolgirl's Diary." Velaise declined to give the value of his deal with the North Koreans, calling it a "fair agreement." North Korean authorities initially requested that he deliver the money in cash but later accepted a wire transfer that transited through four banks, including one in an obscure Russian town.
A plan to bring the film's star, Pak, to France to promote the film got similarly bogged down in red tape. "They told me she was too busy with her film studies," Velaise said, "but I eventually understood that other, more established actresses would have been jealous if she had gotten to go galavanting around Paris while they were stuck in Pyongyang," North Korea's capital. There are no plans yet for a U.S. release, Velaise said. North Korea.
Narayan cited public executions, food shortages and rationing, prison camps and other abuses. Western audiences watching the movie must "keep in mind that North Korea is still facing a food crisis" that has persisted for more than a decade, and that "the film industry is very much controlled. There's a lot of censorship." Hardships ignored The movie glosses over harsh realities of life in North Korea: There is no reference to the famine, which is thought to have killed 2 million people since the 1990s. The characters are plump and healthy, wear colorful clothes and hang out in high-tech settings filled with rows of computers and purring machines with flashing lights. Although it does its best to mask everyday hardships, The Schoolgirl's Diary almost unwittingly gives viewers a sense of North Korea's grind ing poverty.
Soo Ryun and her family live in a dilapidated two-room house with faulty electrical wiring and a blocked chimney. They sleep on floor mats, snuggling together under polyester blankets to keep warm, and dream of moving into a Soviet-style housing block in the city. With its wobbly, hand-held camera, the movie often has a gritty, documentary feel except for when the characters interrupt a scene to burst into song, zealously belting out their undying love for the "dear general," referring to Kim Jong-il, to an accompanying accordion. North Korean authorities have described the movie a 2006 production they said cost about $1 million to make as a runaway success, attracting 8 million spectators in its home country, according to film expert Coppola. James Velaise, who heads the movie's French distributor, Pretty Pictures, called the I I Hi" Caribbean hotel -vT-.
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