AllMovie

Norwegian-born Australian filmmaker Solrun Hoaas made video records of her two trips to North Korea when her feature Aya was shown at Pyongyang's film festival in 1994 and again in 1996. The video was transferred to 16mm for this 71-minute documentary diary with Hoaas narrating as she travels by train from Beijing to Pyongyang, observing statues, monuments, roads barren of bicycles, citizens reading under streetlights, reverence for the late Great Leader Kim Il Sung. Hoaas hears the Communist Party line delivered by her English-speaking guides, and she comments on the effects of rural droughts and famine as she travels to the Chinese border, filming on both sides of the DMZ. Shown at 1998 film festivals (Berlin, Brisbane).