Billed as "a complex exploration of one of the world's most closed nations," A State of Mind purports to offer unprecedented insight into life in North Korea, a country infamously cited by George W. Bush as a member of "the axis of evil." British filmmaker Daniel Gordon's beautifully photographed 2003 documentary certainly takes us deeper into the culture of this isolated land that any Westerner has been in the past half century. In focusing on two female gymnasts, aged 11 and 13, and their preparations for the "socialist realism extravaganza" known as the Mass Games, Gordon shines a light on their daily existence; although the people are hardly prosperous, life in Pyongyang, the capital city, seems reasonably normal (except perhaps for the state radio broadcasts that are pumped into every resident's home and can be turned down, but not off). What's more, the discipline and dedication of young Kim Song Yun and Pak Hyon Sun, as well as the thousands of others who participate in the Mass Games, results in a performance of astonishing skill and splendor (captured in A State of Mind's final and most impressive sequence). Still, it's safe to say that a government as secretive as North Korea's wouldn't have granted "unrestricted access" to a foreign film crew if they anticipated that anything controversial might be revealed. Indeed, what Gordon refers to as "an all-encompassing belief structure imposed on the people"--based on an unquestioning devotion to dictator Kim Jong Il (known as "the General") and the sublimation of the individual for the good of the state--comes through loud and clear in every interview. Even the few problems mentioned, like food shortages or nightly power blackouts in Pyongyang, are attributed to various national disasters or, most often, the wickedness of American "imperialist aggressors." Of course, with Bush's foreign policy having aroused the enmity of most of the rest of the world, it's getting harder for Americans to be scornful of those whom we have alienated. If anything, especially considering their nascent nuclear capability, A State of Mind shows us that North Korea is not a country to be taken lightly. --Sam Graham
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