Wałęsa by Wałęsa

Defilada was made on the occasion of the 40th anniversary celebrations of state's founding in North Korea, which the regime intended to use to eclipse the 1988 Summer Olympics taking place that year in Seoul, South Korea. The North Korean regime invited filmmakers from countries then considered friendly (read: Communist), including People's Republic of Poland, which sent a team under Andrzej Fidyk. The documentary is primarily composed of declarative statements, as well as texts of North Korean newspapers and books. There was no author's commentary. Fidyk commented that he and his team were likely “the most disciplined” foreign team of filmmakers in North Korea, as they did not trouble the regime by looking under the surface - they were content with what they were given and asked to do. (Wikipedia)

Andrzej Fidyk’s and Anna Więckowska’s film tells a story of social and political system changes that have taken place in Poland after 1989.

Today, more than 200.000 men, women and children are locked up in North Korea's concentration camps. Systematic torture, starvation and murder is what faces the inmates. Few survive many years in the camps, but the population is kept stable by a steady influx of new persons considered to be 'class enemies'. A small group of people have managed to flee from the camps to a new life in the prosperous South Korea. Some of them gather and decide to make an extraordinary and controversial musical about their experiences in the Yodok concentration camp. Despite death treats and many obstacles the musical becomes a tour de force for this ensemble of refugees and for them a possibility opens to talk about their experiences and inspire others to protest the existence of the camps.