Now showing at festivals, two reviews
It opened in S Korea in April, and a dozen film festivals since then.
Variety: http://variety.com/2016/film/reviews/under-the-sun-review-1201767261/
The result is an awkwardly revealing act of subversion that is arresting however you take it: as propaganda deconstructed, failed or turned into a tragicomedy whose most stinging indictments lie mostly in what remains unseen. This fascinating curiosity — now destined to play everywhere except its subject nation, which has reportedly already tried suppressing its exposure — is beginning to open theatrically in various territories amidst a long festival run. Icarus Films’ U.S. release kicks off July 6 at NYC’s Film Forum, with Los Angeles and other markets following.
Propaganda film project backfires on North Korea http://www.cnn.com/2016/06/22/asia/north-korea-propaganda/index.html
As disputes worsened over the direction of the project, North Korean authorities announced they were pulling the plug. But the filmmakers still had the footage, including the outtakes, thanks to a camera that was always rolling, and a recording system that used two memory cards instead of one.share
Baumann said North Korean censors would review the footage every night and delete clips they did not approve of. But the camera crew, risking unknown consequences if they were caught, kept a duplicate memory card of each shoot.
"The camerawoman is very brave. She put [the memory card] in her trousers when she went to the toilet," said Baumann. "They gave one of them to the North Koreans, and the second one they took with them."
Using the smuggled footage, the filmmakers decided to continue the project, unauthorized, as a behind-the-scenes exposé. "We decided we had to show that everything is staged," said Baumann.
A sardonic explanation is shown onscreen near the beginning of the movie: "The script of this film was assigned to us by the North Korean side. They also kindly provided us with a round-the-clock escort service, chose our filming locations, and looked over all the footage we shot, to make sure we did not make any mistakes in showing the life of a perfectly ordinary family in the best country in the world."