The Propaganda Game
The Propaganda Game
| 03 October 2015 (USA)
The Propaganda Game Trailers

North Korea. The last communist country in the world. Unknown, hermetic and fascinating. Formerly known as “The Hermit Kingdom” for its attempts to remain isolated, North Korea is one of the largest sources of instability as regards world peace. It also has the most militarized border in the world, and the flow of impartial information, both going in and out, is practically non-existent. As the recent Sony-leaks has shown, it is the perfect setting for a propaganda war.

Reviews
Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.
Kamila Bell This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.
Stephanie There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes
Roxie The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;
Platypuschow With all the ongoing debacles with North Korea in the news I figured this would be a fantastic time to watch The Propaganda Game.A Spanish made documentary with very impressive and rare access to the country it pulls back the curtain (Or at least as far back as the officials would let it go) and shows both sides of this remarkable place.The trouble is that both the west and North Korea seem to be playing the The Propaganda Game and it's extremely hard to know what is true and what isn't. My personal opinion is that it's a combination of both, but this documentary is quite unbias and gives you a chance to decide for yourself.US government, the Korean government, ultimately the real victims in this appear to be the citizens of Korea themselves as I find their chosen lifestyle monstrous but again how much of it is true and how much is staged? The Propaganda Game is well worth a watch and though heartbreaking it is very eye opening and a fantastic piece of documentary film making.Always wondered why Korea didn't kick off over Team America World Police (2004) but did regarding The Interview (2014). Perhaps a leader with less sense of humour explains it?
thomasmansour This documentary is unlike any other documentary on the subject of North-Korea. Most documentaries have a negative undertone from the start of the beginning, but Alvaro Longoria is much more neutral in his "quest to seek out the truth". As one would expect of the communistic country, he is not to travel freely and is always accompanied by guides and state officers, but, unlike other documentaries, a lot of 'normal' North-Koreans (assuming that they aren't all actors) were interviewed in front of a camera. This gives us an insight in what goes through the minds of the North-Korean people and makes it clear that it is truly devoted to its leaders and convinced of their divinity. I have no doubt that there were staged situations, but it just cannot be possible that everything was. Even though the documentary is 90 minutes long, there are still many questions unanswered, for example about prison camps or the black market, but at least Longoria didn't make a suggestive documentary like the VICE documentary on North-Korea, in which they claim it is almost impossible to get in the country and make it look as if they are the only ones there.
thestaudtfamily The N. Koreans aren't only held in by a physical wall that separates them from freedom, they are held in by a wall of propaganda that hearkens to the age of the 3rd Reich. This film did an amazing job of showing how creepy and false the front of this country really is, you can almost feel the dying millions clawing desperately for food or safety right behind the satirically sweet school children singing praises to their crazy, delusional dictator. This film allowed the rest of the world to see the thinly placed veneer, that somehow Kim Jong Un actually believes will fool educated and aware people outside of his regime. First tip was that the camera men are always escorted and observed by government assistants. The veneer is so impossibly thin at times you are left wondering why the hell they spent the money to construct fake museums, colleges and "public places" instead of just feeding the starving masses. Truly the scenes shot in these places are disturbing, in a "happy free" country citizens would be clamoring to visit museums, colleges and gyms but there is a deathly quiet & newness to all of these places that gives away that they are in fact just constructs to fool the western world. I felt the facade, I felt the lie, I understood that the filmmaker was politely playing along to show just how crazy the militant propaganda really was. The fear and uncertainty in the eyes of every person interviewed or even caught on a passing camera,was heartbreaking. One man being interviewed actually broke out in a cold sweat, to what seemed to be a very routine and unimportant question by Western standards. The "modern" apartment with the flat screen was the biggest joke of all. While their military is using 70's and mid 80's media technologies, some random citizen has a flat screen and access to Western free thought movies!? I got tired of the N. Korean diplomat using the word "socialist" in place of totalitarian dictatorship, who does he think he is fooling? It is not democratic when the people think that the leader is god, or can read their minds. Or builds a fence to force them to stay in for that matter. That man was a very low down, slimy slug of a human and I haven't been able to decide whether he was just a forced actor that may have been trying work off some sentence, or just a really huge sellout. He didn't speak the language which seemed really unconvincing. I just get that vibe from him that he is as fake as the scenery. Another poster called him a clown, I think his issues run much darker than they do comical. I spent a good deal of the movie wishing he would trip and fall in front of a bus. All in all it was a very enlightening film, that made me feel emotional and frustrated for the brainwashed and ignorant citizens of N. Korea- they are ignorant in the very true sense of the word- they have NO idea that the west is not evil, that even our poor have access to education, food and shelter that free thought and speech is real thing available to every class. The one thing this movie did for me that others had not was that it showed me what a dangerous man the Supreme Ruler is. Here we make fun of him, we pretend that he is an idiot, a clown, a farce, but all the while he is killing thousands of people that rely on him. He may be all those things but he is one hell of a dangerous farce and I hope within my lifetime he will be dealt with accordingly and the people of his beautiful country given freedom and hope. There is no way not to get something out of this documentary, it was skillfully done and achieved it's purpose of not telling the viewer that the Regime is bombasting the outside world with propaganda but by letting the N. Koreans do it themselves. It was a really engaging film.
MartinHafer In recent years, a few documentary makers have entered the otherwise closed country of North Korea--some of which covertly filmed the land and its people. All of the films like these that I've seen have been rather critical of the repressive North Korean regime and its human rights violations, but this new film is a bit different. While it features some interviews with folks who are very critical of North Korea, it also allows the North Korean propaganda machine ample time to present its well-scripted case that their land is a sort of nirvana and that they must maintain their military might and readiness to protect itself from capitalism and democratization. It's a bit of a confusing film, mostly because you see happy and well-fed North Koreans. But, it must be remembered that the Spanish film crew was led around with government officials and they simply couldn't go where they wanted. In particular, the strange ex- Spaniard and North Korean government official Alejandro Cao de Benós takes the crew about the country and there is no freedom of movement for the filmmakers. So, when they ask about concentration camps and starvation, you never really get to see much of the country other than a couple brief and scripted trip to the countryside and insistence from Benós that such places don't exist. Instead, you see almost exclusively views of the capital, Pyongyang and with loyal North Koreans who seem like model citizens. Overall, the effect is very strange. On one hand, the country looks nice and clean and BIG....but on the other, much of it also seems fake (such as the odd church service they attended). Worth seeing but I am really not that sure what the message is or what most folks will take from the film other than confusion. Because of this, I would recommend you see other films to get a more complete view of the state of the country and its people, such as "A State of Mind", "Crossing the Line" as well as "Seoul Train".
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