Welcome to North Korea! (2009): cast, story & where to watch

Released in 2009, Welcome to North Korea! is a documentary film directed by Linda Jablonská, running about 76 minutes.

What it’s about. Documentary.In its catalogue, a Czech travel agency offers a "journey into the unknown", a tour of North Korea. That spring was the second time since 1990 that a group of Czech tourists set foot in the DPRK. The film follows twenty-seven Czechs who have decided to spend approximately 2,600 Euros on a sightseeing tour of a country which cultivates a cult of personality, maintains concentration camps for its citizens and doesn't hide its development of nuclear weapons. Foreign visitors are only allowed a view of a carefully prepared illusion, thoroughly supervised by "guides". What is more, the North Korean system is starkly reminiscent of our own past. Which emotions do our travellers experience: sympathy, nostalgia or, in contrast, happiness that "we already have this behind us"? How does a Czech person, after being accustomed to eighteen years of freedom and democracy, come to terms with the directives and restrictions of a totalitarian system?

How it landed. With an audience score of 5.3/10, Welcome to North Korea! has proved divisive with audiences.

Where to watch. In US you can stream it on DocAlliance Films and rent or buy it from DocAlliance Films. See the full, country-by-country breakdown on our where to watch Welcome to North Korea! page.

If you liked it. Fans of Welcome to North Korea! tend to enjoy One Direction: This Is Us, Burn the Stage: The Movie, BTS World Tour: Love Yourself - Japan Edition and Senna.