Welcome to North Korea!

In its catalogue, a Czech travel agency offers a “journey into the unknown”, a tour of North Korea. This trip is the second time since 1990 that a group of Czech tourists set foot in North Korea. The film follows twenty-seven Czechs who have decided to spend approximately 2,600 Euros on a sightseeing tour of a country which cultivates a personality cult, maintains concentration camps for its citizens and doesn’t hide its development of nuclear weapons. Foreign visitors are only allowed to view a carefully prepared illusion, thoroughly supervised by “guides”. What’s more, the North Korean system is starkly reminiscent of the Czechs’ own past. Which emotions do our travelers experience: sympathy, nostalgia or, rather, happiness that “we already have this behind us”? How does someone, after being accustomed to freedom and democracy, come to terms with the directives and restrictions of a totalitarian system?
Screening Schedule

No physical screenings scheduled.
Script: Linda Jablonska
Cinematography: David Cysar, Linda Jablonska
Editing: Jakub Voves
Sound: Ivan Horak
Music: Francois Pignon
Production: negativ film productions, Czech Republic Τ. +420 2 24933755 F. +420 2 24933472 office@negativ.cz www.negativ.cz
Producers: Milan Kuchynka
Format: 35mm Color
Production Country: Czech Republic
Production Year: 2009
Duration: 76
Contact: negativ film productions, Czech Republic John Riley T. +420 2 24933755 F. +420 2 24933472 john@negativ.cz www.negativ.cz

Linda Jablonska

Filmography

(selected)
2002 The Star (short)
2003 Believe It or Not (short)
2005 Left to the Front (short)
2005 Hovorove Hornas (TV)
2006 Left Right Forward
2006 Fimfarum 2 (short, TV)
2006 Nerizena strela Stella (TV)
2009 Vitejte v KLDR!/Welcome to North Korea!