Quartile rating: 7/10 · 1 rating
Over the course of one year, this film follows the life of an ordinary Pyongyang family whose daughter was chosen to take part in Day of the Shining Star (Kim Jong-il's birthday) celebration. While North Korean government wanted a propaganda film, the director kept on filming between the scripted scenes. The ritualized explosions of color and joy contrast sharply with pale everyday reality, which is not particularly terrible, but rather quite surreal.
Under the Sun is a genuinely remarkable documentary in which director Vitaly Mansky secretly captured footage between North Korea's scripted scenes, exposing the machinery of propaganda in real time. The concept is singular — a film literally made inside a propaganda film, revealing the staged rehearsals and hollow directives that construct the DPRK's public face. This meta-layered approach earns a top Novelty score. The 'plot' structure, built around the contrast between performed joy and muted reality, is quietly devastating and conceptually strong. Cinematography is competent and sometimes striking but constrained by the controlled environment Mansky was forced to work within. Acting is essentially irrelevant — the subjects are ordinary citizens performing scripted roles, and their wooden compliance is the point rather than a failing. The ending is effective but somewhat muted, closing on ambiguity rather than revelation, leaving the viewer unsettled in a way that feels appropriate but not especially memorable.