Propaganda (2013 English Translation/North Korea/MVD Visual DVD)

Picture: C+ Sound: C+ Extras: D Film: C+

Showing that you never know what you might land up seeing besides the usual outright stupidity, we have Propaganda, a 2013 English translation of a documentary allegedly smuggled out of North Korea telling the viewer (the majority of the isolated North Korean people) how the West is evil and they use something called propaganda to stay in power. Of course, this is a very slanted work and from the many things I know about geopolitics, I believe it to be authentic. If not, those who made it are not fans of North Korea.

Running 96 minutes, the work seems like an act of desperation by the country which squeezes much into its screen time. It starts by attacking America, then moves onto Israel (!?!) as evil by saying they abuse The Holocaust (this is never a very original work) to keep power, then make the equivalent of a racist statement by saying Jewish people lived in harmony for centuries among Arabs and only because of America, the founder and the man who would be the first Prime Minister of the country and the rich Rothschild family, Jews suddenly wanted land. That is among the many slips that shows it too is propaganda and labeling itself as an expose on propaganda does little to inoculate it from the slanted document it is.

Another twist is how it manages to coddle and avoid criticizing anything Arab or Islamic, all the way to misidentifying the three Semite religions it says are manufactured by The West to control the world. In real life, it is Judaism, Christianity and Islam, but this is twisted into Judaism, Christianity and Catholicism, despite the fact that Catholics are Christians too. The agenda of annihilation and making The West as feared as possible is non-stop, no matter how inaccurate.

After more of its so-called history lesson about WWI, WWII, Vietnam and the division of Korea in two (they refer to South Koreas as limp-wristed, so why would they want reunification if they are so bad?), they move onto their ideas of Globalization, World Economy and after many ugly visual moments, an unintentionally funny segment where they attack U.S. Pop Culture (though it has some ugly, bloody footage of its own) where they really fall on their face and seem clueless. Despite the flaws, it has moments worthy of Triumph Of The Will, Battleship Potemkin and other propaganda classics if not as consistent, but it is more effective than the usual KKK/Arian Nation formula. They know not to take on Arabs, but can they think Arabs,Islam and Islamic Extremists would be their allies? This one is worth a look, especially those interested in politics.

The anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image has its mix of old and new footage, but it is in decent shape, consistent in its editing, but nothing too much more impressive. The lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 sound is simple stereo at best, but to make this more amusing, a woman with a British (or Australian) accent translates throughout and that makes it even funnier unintentionally.

There are no extras, but this is more than enough.

- Nicholas Sheffo