Welcome to North Korea!

Not many people can say that they went on vacation to North Korea, but a Czech travel agency makes trips to the most isolated nation in the world possible. There are certain restrictions, though: tourists are not permitted to bring along a telephone or GPS, nor can they take photos of trains and buses or wander off from the group. Hotel rooms are bugged, and some of the North Koreans hovering about can speak Czech. The Czech filmmaker Linda Jablonská booked the trip and posed as a tourist so she could secretly film a documentary about her compatriots' astonishment and inner conflicts. Everyone in the group is on the lookout for the horrors of totalitarianism, but no one gets to see them directly because the only Koreans they are allowed to communicate with are their pristine guides. The tourists encounter many forms of Communist propaganda -- some less successful than others -- including empty six-lane highways, the sidewalk cleared of pedestrians for their benefit, and the unfinished hotel that was to have been the tallest in the world. As the trip continues, Jablonská's companions increasingly express moral concerns, such as when they are ordered to bow to the statue of Kim Jong Il or when they stuff themselves full while families are starving only a hundred yards away. The situation also stirs up terrible memories of Czech Communism.