War of Art (2019) User Reviews

Outrageous documentary about contemporary-art missionaries in North Korea

[tityron · 6/10 · 13 October 2019]

Disclaimer: I am French and I have no connection whatsoever with North Korea, be it genetically, historically, or philosophically.

This is the 999th documentary I rate. That's a lot of documentaries. Yet I can say with hardly any doubt that this is the most outrageous documentary I have ever seen. I am even surprised they actually released it. If I had been one of the producers, I would have called it quits and marked the expenses as lost revenues.

I have watched maybe half a dozen documentaries about North Korea. I read the news related to that country like anybody else, nothing less, nothing more. I hence have a basic knowledge how how the regime works, the values of their society, and I am well aware of the indoctrination of the North-Korean people, which is clearly visible in this documentary. I am even able to see some positive things in their society; for example an artist in the documentary asked his North-Korean translator about his dreams, like having an apartment or a car, and the translator was surprised by such a shallow dream and said with a great innocence that they don't have that kind of dreams in North Korea.

What is so outrageous about this movie? Well, imagine you invite a few people to your house. You do your best to receive and accommodate your guests. You know that the people visiting you do not share your values so you tell them gently how to behave: we use forks, please do not eat with your fingers like a child; do not throw food on the table or drop wine on the tablecloth; we are quiet people, please do not scream, make dirty jokes, smoke, drink enough to be sick. These are your humble rules and you tell them to your guests. Sounds reasonable? Well, as soon as you told them the rules, the guests eat like pigs, swear, scream, etc. You try to contain them and ask them to stop. Do they? Hell no, they misbehave even more. You insist: please, we welcomed you, respect us, do not do things that bother us. Now they go even further: they insult you. You know nothing, understand nothing, they do you a favor coming to you stupid ugly house, your food stinks, your tastes are awful, why don't you grow up and be adults like them? You are really really polite, maybe too much, and tell them to stop. The more you do so, the more they misbehave and insult you.

That's what this documentary does. No matter what you think of the regime in North Korea, you are going to their country, they welcome you, they are polite. Yet the few guests who came to visit spend their time laughing at their hosts, being arrogant, insulting, provocative. They claim they know better and the more you watch the documentary, the more you understand that they are rather uninformed individuals who live in a fantasy world, like the North Korean they make fun of. They have no empathy, no curiosity, not a bit of understanding of people who do not live like them. And I am sure they would claim they have all of these, because it sounds good to say so.

Did you ever think about Europeans who went to Africa to "educate" Africans? Did you wish you could witness missionaries going to America and teach the native population about the truth of Christianity? Does colonialism and imperialism make you sick? Well, now is your chance to see it in real time. You will be sick seeing the "artists" in this documentary go to a foreign country and make fun of basically everything the inhabitants do, and try to "educate" them.

Somebody intelligent, educated, curious, would go to North Korea to understand their culture, share his/her vision of art, have an exchange. There is no exchange in this movie: the neo-conquistador come as the masters who need to enlighten the savages. No wonder North Koreans find capitalist countries despicable if these are the folks we send there. For once, they make an effort to open up and have an intelligent discussion, they only receive rude arrogant visitors. At the end of the movie, you can clearly see the North Koreans look at the artists, clap and think: "What a bunch of idiots!" The foreigners laughed at North Korea all along the movie, and North Koreans laughed at them at the end, thinking that, if that's what the West has to offer, god, we are very lucky to live in North Korea. Honestly, I think North Koreans in this movie were more sympathetic and open-minded than the westerners who visited them.

There is the rare exception of the Irish woman who showed some empathy with the translator at some point. There is also the message that the filmmaker tried to convey about life in North Korea: he showed people in the streets, lovers, friends and families, all smiling and rather happy, while we could hear Donald Trump in the background saying awful things about the country, and you could clearly see that the filmmaker was trying to say that life in North Korea may be hard, or very hard if you go against the system, but that they may not be the absolute monsters that the media describe in the West. Thank you, mister filmmaker, for your tolerance and curiosity, because the contemporary artists in this movie shamed us beyond words. Thinking that these people are esteemed in their respective countries is amazing. North-Korean artists have more to learn from world-class Chinese contemporary artists than from the fellows in this movie.

A fascinating documentary.

[tamsin-parker-262-538925 · 7/10 · 31 July 2019]

A group of artists travel to North Korea on a cultural exchange. Some seem to want to disrupt the country's rigid patterns, while others want to simply exchange cultures. Some of the artists (such as the French one who writes in his own blood) are so pretentious that they can hardly be called artists. As authoritarian as North Korea is, its people do have a point when they said that the German man's work wasn't really art to them. The most interesting artist was indeed the Chinese photographer, not just because of his culture but because of his use of light and colour in his photography. He also had interesting discussions with the locals about culture and politics. The theater designer also brought out the true feelings of the North Korean people, but with care and sympathy. I recommend it, but I warn you that some of these visiting artists are pretentious.

Interesting

[briancham1994 · 7/10 · 3 June 2020]

It is interesting to see these worlds collide, especially as they are extreme examples. North Korea being a closed totalitarian society and the artists being very free-spirited and outrageous. It made me wonder why these particular individuals were even allowed in - they clearly don't have a good time and butt heads at every instance. It was still an interesting comparison of different viewpoints of art though.

Both funny and thought-provoking

[maximusynin · 9/10 · 27 March 2019]

The movie follows the line of 'Liberation day' (2016) and stars a controversial Norwegian artist and director Morten Traavik trying to establish dialogue and show North Korea to the world. Now instead of the Slobenian art-band Laibach, it's a group of diverse contemporary artists who visit the closed country. The movie is beautifully filmed and portrays the clash of cultures: while the Western culture is keen on originality, North Korean seems more concerned about the quality of performance. Both groups of Western and Korea artists talk about spiritual values conveyed through art, but the values themselves seem to be radically different. The movie has funny dialogues between the artists and the local curators and translators about the meaning of art, different lifestyles and the influence of ideology. It also reflects the different personalities of artists (eg the French provocative artists using human bones and his own blood in his works, or a German musician experimenting with infra- and ultra- sounds). A special thanks goes to the film's director Tommy Gulliksen for the Q&A session after premiere at the Copenhagen Documentary Film Festival in March 2019.

Documentary with little empathy for North Korea

[bonobert · 3/10 · 14 May 2019]

I saw the film at the Dok.fest in Munich. I did not find the film convincing. A group of artists goes to North Korea to start an exchange. The artists represent the stereotypes of their country and hardly anyone shows empathy for the situation in North Korea. On the contrary, most of the North Koreans are portrayed as ignorant, inflexible, and refuse to the new. Throughout the film, they make them looking like a fool. It will not catch the political situation at all. In the film, it is completely forgotten that the Koreans have to act that way, because otherwise they end up in jail. Unfortunately this is never shown in the movie. Only the artist from China seems to understand the country a bit because of his origin. I had personal contact with former North Koreans and therefore I think that the film is very distorted

Time travel

[ks-60500 · 5/10 · 15 January 2021]

It's a very interesting documentary like when modern people meet cave time, like time travel totally. The artists are so special such as blood signature and sounds art. The difference and understanding just make me feel diversity is so important from this movie. The coordinator perspective on what's his dream I really didn't expected his answer. Unique movie it's.