Village modèle
by Hayoun Kwon (France)
Hayoun Kwon has found an intriguingly absurd subject – a propaganda village in North Korea – and turned it into a creative and esthetically exquisite short film. Kwon’s complex relationship with her home country plays a leading role, and swaying from fiction to reality Kwon has this time chosen a peculiar documentary format. She uses transparent models and clean-cut surfaces in accordance to the actual faux model village of Kijong-dong to visualize the demilitarized zone inaccessible to cameras. The filmmaker successfully plays with sounds – including an audio of a tourist trip and a clip from a propaganda film – as well as light to stimulate the viewers’ imagination. The brightly painted concrete flats in the village are actually empty shells, the choice of transparent models and the style of cinematography work perfectly, emphasizing on the fakeness of the actual village and rising a dreadful thought that the village is only a shadow. The film emphasizes the absurdness of the situation and models show the artificiality of the village. On one hand the idea of the film and its realization contribute as an independent work of art, but on the other Kwon inflicts an immense craving to see the actual village, even though it is accessible and truly exists only in our minds and imagination –Kijong-dong seems so close yet so far. After being absorbed into the fabricated blackand-white world of facades and charades, you get to see the camera and two searchlights moving through the village. The unexpected
appearance of monstrous machinery, in contrast with the small-scaled model village, shakes your attention. It forces it to slowly drift away. At first it seems unnecessary and erroneous, but the constant moving of the picture and sliding through the model adds a sense of imminent threat and gloominess to the devices, showing them as metaphors for the heavy machinery behind the ghost town and mechanism of fiction.The darkness and the intimidating sound design describe the real situation.The climax of the film adds a subtle twist of psychedelic euphoria with the illusions created by shadows and light, almost seeming like the see-through models are rising from the ground. Village modèle is a journey through a weird and mesmerizing village like a strange spot between fiction and reality; and an experience in itself, both thought-provoking and aesthetically delightful. The audio clips, playing with the light and shadows, create a loose narrative which you cling to and so the ending sneaks in without notice, like the dark taking over the land after sunset – slow and steady. This seemingly simple short film strikes with its subtle genius – the way that all the details fall into place and how it is possible for the visual side and the story to marry each other and create such a harmonious whole. And how nonostentatious artifices can work so brilliantly in order to express a simple yet multiplex subject matter.
Nisimazine Karlovy Vary // 7
review by Maarja Hindolla // Nisimazine Rotterdam // 11