AppsScraps Movie Reviews

May 12, 2009

The Red Chapel

Release date: 5 May 2009 (Toronto International Hot Docs Film Festival)

A documentary that offers bang for your buck on several levels, the Red Chapel’s initial pretext is a cultural exchange between a small Dutch theatre group and the totalitarian state that is North Korea. The theatre troupe is headed by the documentary’s director Mads Brügger and comprises two Danish/Korean comedians, Simon and Jacob, who is disabled. As they land in Pyongyang they are ferried about by the capital by a very motherly government handler as they prepare for their performance at the National Arts Centre. What follows though is an incisive look inside a brutal regime that begins to take its toll on the teenaged Jacob as he learns other disabled children in the country are simply killed at birth or moved to camps in the wildness. With moments of hilarity clearly lost in translation between the Dutch and Koreans, moving emotion, and cutting commentary on what remains the most horrific military state on the planet, The Red Chapel is a must see. Book a ticket.

My rating 9 out of 10.

1 comment:

AskeAnker said...

No Dutch. Danes who speak Danish and are from Denmark ;)

But I agree. Great documentary...