Sofya Adamova

The documentary of Vitaly Mansky about life in North Korea “In the Rays of the Sun” was released. A number of cinemas refused to show the tape after the protest of Pyongyang, but the reviews of the film received an enthusiastic, nevertheless full -length documentary from the DPRK - a huge rarity. The Insider talked with the director about that part of the life of North Korea citizens, which is hidden behind the scenery of official propaganda.

- How much, according to your feelings, the society that you saw in the DPRK looks like Soviet society that you remember?

-Only outwardly, that is, some architectural elements, elements of propaganda or urban design are really similar, there is a similarity of demonstrations, processions and so on , but still I remember the Soviet time very well. We, going in construction and proclaiming slogans for the glory of the party and its leaders, at the end of this demonstration went to our kitchens, where we carried about the same leaders, whose portraits we carried an hour earlier, were happy to tell jokes. We had some kind of life separate from ideology . In North Korea, I did not observe anything like this, and those people who know this country, they rather agree with me: the North Korets, in fact, passes in the ranks, he never returns, never comes to this kitchen, where he can subject to some doubt, the sarcasm of the postulates of his system.

Even if I talked about similarity, I would rather send, of course, not by the 60s or 70s, and even more so to the 80s, but I would talk about the years of the Stalinsky period, because in the late Soviet years more or less, albeit with a certain ideological processing of consciousness, but still there was information about the outside world. We watched American paintings, we also bought jeans, chewing gum, Playboy magazines, we listened, in the end, the “voice of America”, we conveyed samizdat, and did not shoot anyone for samizdat.

Of course, a person was subjected to repression, but, in comparison with the North Korean version, very humane - they fired from work, put it in a fool, but nothing especially criminal.

In today's Russia, which, of course, is in the whole state, people swallowed the air of freedom, it has not yet disappeared into their lungs. And so take the Russian and get not just to the concentration camp, but in the fierce system, like the DPRK, is simply impossible.

- But now we are observing the desire to create a cult, a return to the idea of ​​Stalin as a great leader.

- I understand what you are talking about, but this is a very long way. Generally speaking, the creation of the DPRK is an almost abnormal phenomenon. How radiation entails some anomalies: calves with two heads are born, for example. Actually, the North Korean regime is also an anomaly that occurred as a result of fairly serious tectonic shifts in this region - one war, the second war ... This has been the mentality of oriental culture with certain institutions and the desire for veneration.

The factor of the appearance of northern Korea nuclear weapons (it is clear by whom and why it was transferred to the young regime of Kim Il Sen) also contributed to the emergence of this absolutely abnormal regime, the repetition of such a situation somewhere in the world is very unlikely. And Russia, with all my critical attitude to the current political climate in the country, is simply incorrect with North Korea.

- North Korea disappeared from international political rhetoric, if someone recalls her, then casually. In your opinion, should the world intervene in this situation? And do I need to do this?

- I think that intervention can lead to unpredictable events. And, paradoxically and cruelly it sounds, but you need to wait until the regime outlives itself. This can happen completely unexpectedly, conditionally, a brick will fall on his head. You know, everything in life happens - we are not talking about a conspiracy, but about unpredictable situations.

Of course, this can happen tomorrow, but if the regime lives in its coordinate system, it has a very high margin of strength, which is enough for decades.

I believe that for another 30 years it can exist in this frozen form, and if external factors are actively invading there, taking into account the fundamental processing of the consciousness of millions of northern Koreans, this can not only blow up the region, but also spread further even in their access to the nuclear button. During the Second World War, Kamikadze was in Japan, t Ak, Kamikadze - this is just nothing compared to what the North Koreans, people who were brought to the state of the North Korean today can present to the world. Then September 11 will seem to be a childish babble.

- Some Koreans still manage to escape from the DPRK and start a new life. So this is still possible? Is there a chance, showing the Koreans the Western world, change their eyes?

- To begin with, one of the postulates of this ideology is absolute isolation from the outside world, and they will not be able to show anything. There are two television channels: one - morning broadcasting until one afternoon, and the second - from one to evening, that is, in fact, this is generally one channel. For two months I watched their television programs, there is generally no outside world.

For example, a program like Animal Planet, which they are unlikely to buy, rather steal: as soon as a hotel should appear in it, the city, the car is just a kind of social component, some information about another civilization is immediately cut out.

Only nature, landscapes, rivers, birds, fish - that is, it is almost impossible to see a person in jeans. The same applies to sports. I watched the annual subscription of several main newspapers, there are not so many of them, and all of them are completely dedicated to the leader.

They are all very small, four -page, the newspaper Pravda looked like this in the Soviet years. On the first page there is a large portrait of the leader, on the second - four waist portraits of the leader, on the third - eight group portraits of the leader with production leaders, on the last page - about the achievements of the national economy.

And in the very corner - in the Soviet years there was also such a heading - there were black frames where obituary could be published: employees of the sugar factory with a regret report the untimely death of our chief accountant. Here in such frames there are grains of information about what is happening outside North Korea. And what is this information? The oil pipeline exploded, a plane fell, some kind of strike, football fans were fighting. This really happens in the world: they kill, and earthquakes, and technogenic disasters, but the North Koreans know only about them, so they think with horror what is going on outside our prosperity!

I have great doubts about the stories about refugees, that is, of course, they have, but I talked with them in South Korea, after all, they have a different motivation - these are not people who, for example, fled from the GDR to Germany - they accurately understood where they were running.

People run from North Korea, absolutely not understanding where. They run away from despair, they rather run from something, and not somewhere. In other words, if you are on the ship in the open sea, and you are depressed there, they are mocking, you jump overboard from despair, hoping little to the fact that you will be ashore at all - and here.

- Returning to the film, I was surprised by the clothes of people. Everyone who got into the frame, for example, women who go to the plant, are very fashionable, brightly dressed. Is this staging shooting? Because the scene where the crowd pushes the bus is a completely different feeling - all people are in gray.

“I don't know how they prepared shooting.” Once we filmed the dedication of schoolchildren into pioneers. And so, when everyone had already taken places in the hall, our accompanying people approached and already trained people, pulled out cameras from the bag and handed them out.

Then they stood and explained where to press, that is, they gave people cameras, exactly realizing that they would fall into the frame that they should take pictures. And after shooting, they took these cameras from them. If you carefully look, it is clear that the person, of course, did not turn the camera upside down, but treats him so that it becomes clear - he holds it in his hands for the first time in his life.

- Here in Russia, people do not really like to smile, they say that Russians are gloomy people, but from the heroes of your film blows unbearable longing. And their eyes are not just sad, but also bored.

- No, I would say indifferent. And this happens largely because a person there is born in a situation where nothing depends on him from the first to the last day of his life. Therefore, by some age, by the age of 15, a detached attitude to what is happening around and to himself is developed. This is a unique experiment on a person, he gives such a reaction.

Unfortunately, we all saw the frames of executions in ISIS, there you can see that people who are executed do not resist. How they behave, how they look ... as if they were not shot down now or cut off their heads.

I do not know what happens to these people before this indicative shooting begins, but, apparently, something happens, after which a person does not care, he already has absolutely depressed the will and, as it were, he no longer, he does not exist, he is not inside himself. The northern Koreans are somewhat reminiscent of people who lead to execution, they are no longer inside themselves.

“ They automatically glorify the great leader or really believe that he committed all the exploits that they attribute to him?”

- It is taken into account that since childhood, from the moment of gaining the language and understanding the meaning of words, they are informed that their leader is a divine being, which spreads the mountains, turns the river back, flies on the carpet and the like (and in this case I retell the daily transmission of “Good night, kids”, which each time informs children about the lead), then They simply do not imagine anything more than a leader.

This is not even a religion - this is some kind of severe sect. Still, “Vera” is what a person comes consciously, but here a certain subconscious implantation occurs.