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Comment by supernihil | Hacker News Reader

Years ago some danes (incl two adopted south koreans) went to north korea to film a satire documentary called "the Red Chapel" (trailer https://youtu.be/1aQRC_4LheY)

One of the members was a handicapped danish comedian, the other another very legendary satire comedian (now chef) and the director has later made many dox afterwards.

During their trip they participated in a military march. One of them wheel-chaired in a country known for "magically having no handicapped people".

Its equally incredible what they did in their visit as it is they got out alive.

Here is an interview with the director: https://youtu.be/gWkPKlmptFo

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holy shit that's the same person [Mads Brügger] who over months impersonated a corrupt diplomat in africa in the documentary The Ambassador (must-watch). So he's been up to other dangerous (and mischievous in the best way) reporting (well, wikipedia tells me this was before the ambassador). Stunning.

I can recommend "cold case hamarskjold" from same director too

I haven't watched this, but the documentary about Laibach's visit to North Korea was very revealing: https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2017/dec/08/storyvi...

I just watched the trailer again. Damn its an impressive portrait of the torment of resisting your urge to scream and the actual panic in the small group of keeping eachothers face and reactions in the narrow strip of "acceptaple" while being in the dystopic nightmare

What happened to the North Korean people portrayed in the movie, after the movie came out?

Nobody knows i guess but i think the team acted responsibly to not bring people into "bad standing"

If I remember correctly the handicapped was asked by North Korea to pretent he was an able person acting as a handicapped.

It’s a very weird documentary.

Yeah and also sometimes introduced as a drunk. Incredible courage they all had. But dont underestimate their intelligence: each person in the group have incredible comedic talent as well and are incredible in a multitude of other fields too

I have no opinion on the movie as a whole, but couple things that stood out from the trailer

"North Korea - the most evil dictatorship known to mankind" - uhmmmm, really? More evil than(just in the last 100 years) dictatorships of Mao, of Stalin, of Pol Pot? By what measure?

"art in a country that does not tolerate art" - well that's just simply not true at all. North Korea both has and values art - just not the same way other countries do. One of the most internationally known facts about North Korea is the Arirang Festival - and what is that, if not art? Even its propaganda is art.

I think paying attention to taglines as means of content is false. The dox is what is is. Marketing is what it is. I agree with your points though but when you say "evilest by what messure?" I could for example say "by still being around for so long" Also does it make sense to discuss minima/maxima in terms of human rights? I guess we all want maximum! :-)

That being said, while I think the DPRK is probably the worst, I believe the longest running dictatorship is probably Saudi Arabia or some other kingdom.

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