Camp 14: Total Control Zone

"A human life in the camp was worth the same as that of a fly." These are the words of a former guard at a North Korean labor camp, though nowadays he is the very picture of affability. The guard plays only a minor role in . The film's protagonist is a young man born in a similar camp who grew up as a forced laborer. At the age of 23, he managed to escape to South Korea, where he was rigorously interrogated by the secret service. Once out of the camp, he at first felt like he was from outer space. The principle of money as a means of exchange, for example, was utterly foreign to him. Dressed in a red T-shirt in his austerely furnished Seoul home, he talks about the horrors of the camp. Judging by his facial expression, one might think he was unaffected, but there are occasional long pauses in his account and moments when he halts completely, such as when he describes how he was forced to betray his blood relatives and witness the execution of his mother, his father at his side. He also shows how his arms have been mutilated by torture. Restrained animated scenes reproduce events within the camp. Although he initially thought the outside world was a paradise, he now believes that "It's all about money. It's odd, but more people are committing suicide here than in the camp. I miss the purity of my heart."