For decades North Korea has been a country shrouded in secrecy from the outside world. Little is seen of the totalitarian regime of Kim Jong-il, son of the great leader Kim Il-sung, or the people of one of the few Communist-ruled countries in the world. As a clandestine nation with nuclear ambitions, North Korea was only recently taken off the U.S. list of ?states that sponsor terrorism? whilst international NGOs count human rights in North Korea as some of the worst in the world, with severe restrictions on their political and economic freedoms.
The project shows North Korea from a different perspective. Beaches and mud baths, hairdressers and hospitals, farms and karaoke bars, these are just some of the places where the North Koreans are shown - as have never been shown before, alongside more familiar scenes of North Korea, and the most famous spectacle of all, the Pyongyang Arirang mass games, where thousands perform disciplined acrobatics and record-breaking formations in dazzling displays. This is a view of the people of this little seen and understood country - at work, at play, living their lives as best they can.
