Australian
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Teacher’s notes

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This clip shows scenes from the streets of Pyongyang in North Korea in the early morning as workers travel to work and schoolchildren gather on a corner. The streets display political posters, including one that says ‘Let’s celebrate / Sept. 9th / Our way to socialism’. In voice-over filmmaker Solrun Hoaas describes how a man approaches and speaks to her to indicate that she should stop filming the schoolchildren, and how she waits a while then continues filming. The children form a group and sing a song about Kim Jong Il while marching along the street to school.

Educational value points

• This clip discloses the extent of political ideology in everyday life in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), and that it revolves around the deification of the current leader, Kim Jong Il (1941–). The political street posters and the effusive song about Kim Jong Il that the children sing on their way to school are evidence of the highly effective political indoctrination that North Koreans experience from an early age.

• One of the political posters featured here reads ‘Let’s celebrate / Sept. 9th / Our way to socialism’, a reference to the foundation of the DPRK. This occurred on 9 September 1948 when Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Il’s father, led North Korea to victory after 35 years of Japanese occupation. Under his rule, the DPRK became a closed society while his ‘Juche’ policy of self-reliance led to food shortages and starvation for many North Koreans.

• The clip reveals the restrictions and anti-Western paranoia the filmmaker faced in her coverage of the closed society of North Korea. While she has ventured out for some impromptu filming it is not long before she attracts the attention of a man keen for her to stop. At the time North Korea shunned the Western world and tightly controlled any media, tourist and business access to the country, and it continues to do so.

• This documentary offers a rare glimpse into a closed communist society and reflects the role of filmmaking in documenting, observing and bringing insights to the general public. Hoaas began filming in 1994 when invited as a guest filmmaker to the Fourth Pyongyang International Film Festival, and returned in 1996. She narrates the film in the style of a travelogue, in keeping with her stated aim of presenting an alternative viewpoint that humanises the North Koreans.

• The street scene reveals the run-down state of the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, which could indicate the economic mismanagement that was causing severe food shortages. The buildings appear to need maintenance, the street has many potholes and there are not many people on their way to work. Only a few outmoded vehicles can be seen and the children march down the centre of the street, suggesting that usually there is not much traffic.