Under the Sun
New York Times Critics' Picks
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1h 45m
Directed by Vitaly Mansky • Documentary • 2015 • 110 minutes
After years of negotiation the Russian director Vitaly Mansky was invited by the North Korean government to make a film about one girl and her family, in the year she prepares to join the Children's Union, on the 'Day of the Shining Star' (Kim Jong-Il's birthday).
'My father says that Korea is the most beautiful country...' says eight-year-old Zin-mi. And so it might seem as Mansky films her participating in joyous patriotic school pageants, in dance class, or with her parents, eating delicious food, in their lovely apartment.
But the government handlers supervising the production did not realize that Mansky kept filming even after they had shouted 'Cut.' UNDER THE SUN is the jaw-dropping result, a 'surreal and sinister... real-life version of THE TRUMAN SHOW' (The Hollywood Reporter).
"Critics' Pick! Startling and chilling." - The New York Times
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