North Korea is the most secretive and isolated country in the world. No one knows what the people under the rule of the dictator Kim Jong-un really think. Until now.
In this film, we hear the uncensored views of people in the North – army officers, a senior member of the security service, and an ordinary family contemplating escape. All risk their life and freedom to talk to four North Koreans who have managed to escape to the South, and who have broken through Kim Jong-un’s formidable wall of silence to talk to friends and colleagues in the North. As the film follows their stories over a momentous year, we see first hand the price paid for contacting the outside world…

A Hardcash Productions/ The Economist 1 x 68 for ITV Exposure. Filmed, produced and directed by Sarah Collinson. 

★★★★☆

“Time and again we were reminded that these were not experienced spies used to talking in riddles, but desperate people trying to make sense of enigmatic, rushed messages delivered under constant risk of interception or exposure. The paranoia and despair were thick and tangible.

“Life is really hard here,” said Mrs Lee’s sister, “but I’m surviving.” How much longer, Sarah Collinson’s excellent film suggested, was a matter of increasingly urgent concern.”

Gabriel Tate, The Times

★★★★

“Watching the excellent Dispatches film North Korea: Life Inside the Secret State it was startling to realise how rarely documentaries are able to explore the human stories, instead of observing the country as a polemic talking point to gawp at in disbelief.

Anxiety simmered through the film: with each conversation, a caller risked their life. Their fear was palpable.

Storytelling was nonjudgmental, precise and powerful, with animation used to illustrate the phone calls and flashcards marking key dates – missile launches, foreign visits – across a turbulent year of filming. We were eased in with everyday missives from those inside, before later given shocking reminders of the brutal risks they face.

...A frightening, informative, look at life under the terror of a totalitarian regime.”

Sarah Carson, The Independent