THE JUCHE IDEA Alt_Cinema

The third in a troika of hilariously serious looks at communism, Jim Finn’s newest triumph firmly establishes the director as the funniest simp/dupe since Zero Mostel. This time Finn takes dead aim at the official North Korean ideology Juche, reveling in the absurd results of the regime’s attempts to turn directors into doctrinaires (Juche’s main architect, Kim Jong Il, is accurately credited is a co-writer, leading to all sorts of idle musings about the distribution of residuals ) The plot follows the travails of an aspiring auteur, Yoon (lee Jung Yoon), who has chosen North Korea as her base of operations. As Yoon attempts to create a sci-fi thriller that still adheres to the tenets of Juche, Finn provides us with an introduction lo the unmatched silliness of North Korea’s state-sponsored “art” apparatus. We are also treated to a series of rhetorical lessons, featuring appropriately obtuse titles like “English as a Socialist Language,” that, at their best moments, make Baral sound like freaking Cicero. JUCHE IDEA ignores the boundaries that have been erected between experimental film and its more mainstream relations by simply being good enough lo defy classification . Outmoded despots be warned-Jim Finn is coming for you!