A propaganda film was recently shown in Kyongwon County, North Hamgyong Province, at the behest of the party and working-class organizations. However, most people fell asleep while watching the movie.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a Daily NK source in North Hamgyong Province said Friday that the party committee of a mining company in Kyongwon County held the screening for workers at the mine’s cultural center late last month.
Meanwhile, the Socialist Women’s Union of Korea gathered its members at the Hamyon Workers’ District and the cultural center in the center of Kyongwon County for the screening.
The screening was of “Notes of a War Correspondent,” a 1982 film depicting the activities of the North Korean army during the Korean War. The film was praised in North Korea as a step forward in war film production.
However, because the movie is 40 years old and people have seen it so many times that they have memorized the script, very few people watched it attentively, the source said.
The source said it was “quite a sight as more people were sleeping than watching the movie, perhaps because they’ve seen it so many times. He added that while people had fallen asleep watching movies before, “this time you could count on one hand how many people were actually watching the movie.
Officials from the mining company’s party committee, which organized the screenings, seemed helpless to control the situation because it was dark and they could not identify all the sleeping people.
People complain about having to pay for viewing film
After the screening, viewers were forced to gather to discuss the movie.
“During the discussions, officials from the company’s party committee emphasized that people must sacrifice even their lives to carry out party orders and revolutionary tasks, just like the protagonists in the movie,” the source said. “After that, [the party officials] made everyone participate in the discussion and got them to pledge that they would unconditionally carry out the tasks assigned by the party, even if they had to sacrifice their lives, just like the protagonists in the movie.”
Some people, however, were negative about this demand for loyalty. One person asked who would take care of his children “if we sacrifice our lives to carry out revolutionary tasks. Well, I really hate to hear talk about giving up one’s life.
People were particularly unhappy with the film screenings in the workers’ district and at the downtown cultural center, which charged KPW 1,200 per person for admission.
“People said it was nonsense to charge money to see a movie that we even memorized the lines from, and now we’re being charged for political study sessions,” the source said.
Daily NK works with a network of sources living in North Korea, China, and elsewhere. Their identities remain anonymous for security reasons.
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