Vitaly Mansky's UNDER THE SUN attempts -- with great beauty -- to reveal North Korea...

...but as usual with documentaries about this most foreign of foreign countries (I wonder if even North Koreans find it pretty strange: probably not, as they appear to have been brainwashed into a kind of near-lobotomization by now), we get pretty much the same old thing. Yes, once again (as in last year's Songs From the North), the state and its minions control everything the documentary filmmaker sees, hears and shoots (they even write the goddamned script!), so that everything the viewer sees and hears in, UNDER THE SUN, the latest attempt to show us North Korea, is... pretense. And pretense -- especially when it is handled as obviously as it is in this "kingdom" -- soon becomes downright boring.

How can it not? And how can a filmmaker begin to tell the truth when the powers-that-be are looking over his shoulder and telling him what to do, 24/7? Well, there is the editing process, once you've left the country. So documentarian Vitaly Mansky (shown at right, and clearly suffering from a North Korean-induced migraine) seems to have confined some of that "fake" script to voice-over and then let his visuals tell a bit different story from what those in power might want. Also, in his finished film, he explains via supertitles that introduce some of the scenes, how the state consistently changed reality into whatever scenario it would rather have us see and hear.

The result of all this is more beautiful visually than we've seen before. The colors are often eye-popping, particularly in scenes such as one in what looks like a soy milk factory, and later at some sort of a group sing-along in which the women are attired in simply gorgeous, colorful costumes. Visually, the movie is much more stunning than the obviously lower-budgeted Songs From the North (hell, it's even more so than that of the much higher-budgeted Hollywood narrative comedy The Interview).

And the scenes Mr. Mansky managed to capture (I am guessing surreptitiously) of everyday North Koreans show a populace in which anything approaching normal behavior has been commandeered by the state. No wonder the people seem to walk around like zombies. (There's a scene in which one after another twosome or threesome poses in front of bright red flowers and murals of the "great leaders" that is hugely sad, as are other scenes in which Mansky's camera captures subway and escalator riders.  These visuals take us so far before repetition and boredom set in.

How many times must be watch the Korean "director" coach his subjects to do and say the scripted stuff,  smile more, and act more joyful before we get the point? A little of this goes a long way, and Under the Sun lasts 105 minutes, during which we even have to sit through some "reshoots."

And while we do get so fun and sadness out of the leading threesome (shown at left) that is forced to portray the "typical" family in the documentary, with a little girl who is particularly sweet and charming, seeing her and her parents in all these faked situations -- at school, joining a political children's group, working in a garment factory, listening to an old military man drone on, watching a dance class, in hospital, and performing in the would-be spectacular finale number -- everything here combines to tell us what we already know. Or at least think we know. And nothing we see or hear here is likely to disabuse us of these notions. (Also, the thought does arise: What happened to this family after the film was released at film festivals around the world, much to the displeasure of the North Korean government?)

So Under the Sun joins the collection of movies, books, news reports, and all else about North Korea that we already have. If there is a way to show the real thing, nobody's found it yet. Instead we get the pretense (and sidelong glances that indicate something more). Over and over again. I'm not sure what is left for us to learn from all this.

The documentary -- released via Icarus Films, in Korean with English subtitles -- opens this Wednesday, July 6, in its U.S. theatrical premiere for a one-week engagement at Film Forum in New York City. Elsewhere? Yes, and you can see all nine, currently-scheduled cities and theaters in which the film will screen by clicking here.

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documentary films, international co-productions, North Korea, repression, the evils of pretense, UNDER THE SUN, Vitaly Mansky,

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Yael Reuveny's FAREWELL, HERR SCHWARZ: another strange and fascinating Holocaust tale

TrustMovies is beginning to think it's inevitable: the more Holocaust documentaries that appear, the better and more interesting they seem to become. This subject -- of the Nazi intent to destroy the world's Jewish population and its aftermath (it's that aftermath that has produced some of the finest of these docs) -- appears to be inexhaustible. Just when you think you've encountered the strangest of these true tales (take The Flat, for instance: see it, if you haven't yet; it's available to stream via the usual suspects), along comes another that surprises and seduces. Such a film is this week's opener, FAREWELL, HERR SCHWARZ.

As written, directed and narrated by Yael Reuveny (shown at left, who also appears throughout the documentary), the film tells of her family's experience during and after the Holocaust (mostly after) and spans three generations, beginning with her grandmother, Michla (shown below, pre-Holocaust, in the front row, second from left), who survived it, along with the grandmother's brother, Feiv'ke shown below, front row, at left), who did, too. In fact, early on the movie explains how Feiv'ke was a man who "died twice." If only it were that easy. Feiv'ke's story, which includes a kind of "identity" change that involves both name and history becomes one of those mysteries about us humans' ability to do some very odd things, while leaving all trace of reason or motive buried. And so Ms Reuveny's documentary becomes a search for answers, some of which are forthcoming while others remain shrouded.

Part of a good mystery lies in its unfolding, and so I must say little about what occurs here -- except to note that we meet quite a few members of the filmmaker's family, some of whom she knows quite well, others who prove a surprise.

What distinguishes Farewell, Herr Schwarz, besides its unfurling story, is the role Ms Reuveny plays in it all and how learning what she learns affects her. More than in most documentaries I can recall, we seem to be able to see here how the actual processing of information works: How the characters take in what they are learning and how they try to deal with it.

There are times here in which the camera simply watches and waits, as Reuveny struggles to understand events, motives and meaning. As we watch, we find ourselves trying to deal with all this, too.

This kind of processing is extremely important, I think, to families rocked by the Holocaust, the effects of which just keep unravelling from generation to generation. How each generation deals with that event -- whether by repression, shame, therapy, or even the embrace of Germany (one of Ms Reuveny's ways of dealing) -- proves something fraught and fascinating in itself.

We meet friends and relatives that take in the three generations, and they are all lively and interesting (one of the most enjoyable is the old woman friend of grandmother Michla (above) who has a number of thoughtful and sad things to tell us. Another new relative is a tall young German man (below) who proves as interested in Israel and Ms Reuveny is in Germany.

Another nice sidelight here is how certain folk discovered their Jewish roots and how they responded to this (Madeleine Albright could learn something). All in all, this small movie about one family and its continuing experience with the Holocaust is a quietly provocative experience.

The film -- from Kino Lorber and running 96 minutes -- opens this Friday, January 9, for a one-week run at New York City's Quad Cinema and on Saturday, January 10, for a two-day run at Manhattan's JCC on Manhattan's upper west side.

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"family" movies, documentary films, FAREWELL HERR SCHWARZ, Israeli cinema, multi-generation movies, the Holocaust, Yael Reuveny,

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Greg Barker's WE ARE THE GIANT: Remembering Arab Spring--together with its not-so-hot results

I suspect it will be very easy to get angry at Greg Barker and his new documentary, WE ARE THE GIANT, which offers up a few of the folk who were (and still are -- some of them, at least) actively involved in the ongoing protest collectively known as Arab Spring. After all, what looked like, at last, a wonderful explosion of the possibility of "democracy" in the Arab world, involving some 20 countries, beginning with Tunisia and spreading through-out, turns out to be either the further rise of putrid fundamentalism or rather an even stronger dictatorship, pushing citizens under its thumb ever more fiercely. Showing us Mao's revolution and then Chinese students protesting that revolution with no intervening commentary is perhaps not the most intelligent of choices.

So, when we begin our viewing, we see a quote from Che Guevara together with a rapid montage of various "popular" revolutions throughout history, though whether these involve Mao, Lenin, Jefferson or Castro, or whether these helped or hindered the people, does not seem to matter much to Mr. Barker (shown at left). It's the idea of a popular revolution that counts. But, then, when the documentary lets us know that its subject is the would-be "popular revolutions" in the Arab world -- after what has happened there over the past few years -- one's hope further declines.

Don't give up, however. Although Barker's initial foray into the Middle East involves Libya and a father-son team of born-in-America Arab patriots (pictured, above, front), who may be fighting more out of religious than populist fervor -- does not Barker notice the name of Allah being invoked here and what that might mean for women and other minorities, come the revolution? --  as the movie moves onward, to Syria and then Bahrain (where the fight is led by a father his two daughters, shown below), the film takes on increasing strength and meaning. (Although what this meaning actually is is up for grabs.)

In between, we meet two Syrian revolutionary leaders dedicated (initially, at least) to peaceful protest. One of them, below, remains so, even though we see the horrendous results of peaceful protest under a cruel dictatorship. The we see the results of violent protest, too, which Syria gave over to, with results no less horrendous -- except now, as one fellow points out, the protestors can at least strike back against their overlords using the same kind of death and destruction rained on them. Some fun. At least here, we get an interesting idea of how Syria's "Free Army" was born and then grew, unfortunately, into something that could be taken over by extreme fundamentalist killers.

We get a little Gandhi, Mandela, King and Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi, before delving into the lives of that family from Bahrain, in which one of the sisters must finally ask America's government -- since we have refused to intervene in this country the way we have in Libya -- "Is a Bahrainian life not worth as much as a Libyan life?" Evidently, not. You see, Libya for years had a dictator unfriendly to the western powers, whereas Bahrain's equally cruel and dictatorial guy is friendly to us. The Maoris of New Zealand present a case study for one of the sisters to use in facing the opposition, but this goes only so far. We hear the tale of the girls' father being arrested and beaten in front of his family, and finally the remaining sister (the other has earlier fled to the West) is arrested, released, and then arrested again and again and again.

Does all this sound a bit depressing. It sure is. The titular "Giant," as explained by Dad to his children, stands for the people. Why should this enormous population be held in thrall to the small minority who rule, Dad asks? His daughters cannot answer. No more than can we. Except to note that, since that small minority controls all the resources and thus the power, its control will go on indefinitely -- despite any revolution, peaceful or violent. The "giant," as usual, is a helpless one. And we are, all of us, indeed that giant, serving ever more the powers-that-be -- which, here in the Western world, we now call the corporations and the one per cent.

While I doubt that this is the point the filmmaker intends to make, it is the depressing one that must be taken away from his film -- which is, above all else, hugely thought-provoking. We Are the Giant -- from Music Box Films,  running 92 minutes and in both Arabic and English -- opens tomorrow, Friday, December 12 in New York City (at the Cinema Village) and in Los Angeles (at Laemmle's Music Hall 3). 

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American/British co-productions, Arab Spring, documentary films, Greg Barker, history, oppression and depression, populist revolutions, WE ARE THE GIANT,

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