Pyongyang. Guy Delisle.

Astiberri (2007, 3rd edition).

176 pages black and white.

The comic book of Quebequés Guy Delisle opens with a full page drawing of the airport of the capital of North Korea, Pyongyang. The author places more images of the same size in the book, mostly of buildings and monuments that represent the mere grandeur of the country. At the top of the airport building is the portrait of the great leader Kim Il Sung (1912-1994). His image will often be seen throughout the book, along with that of the leader Kim Jong Il, who died on 17 December in Berlin. Delisle was in North Korea in 2003, when, at the request of the French television channel TF1, he went to work on cartoons for two months at the SEK (Scientific Educational Korea) centre. In the comic book he collects, through black and white drawings, what was experienced and seen then: portraits of two of his almost twins leaders who keep watching, “volunteers” who adapt the roads, mistrust towards the symbols of capitalism (cameras of photos, radios, musical apparatus, etc. ), streetlights that don't turn on at night, an official Red Corner guide that never goes off, a secret guide.

“The best documentary about North Korea is a comic book,” we read in the book’s back cover. “Delisle told his stay in the capital with a demanding irony.” It is true that they are ironic, but I have the feeling that this irony has always been in the spotlight of the North Koreans, that the desire to make them ridiculous is all too obvious. It is true that the reality of North Korea can be ridiculous and absurd – you only have to look at the images of the death of leader Kim Jong Il – but Delill always depict others with ridicule, without turning the situation around and without “punishing” it never, presenting around it as alien. “To what extent can one person’s brain be manipulated?” “Will you believe all the nonsense that you want to make them swallow?” Who knows? Do you think Delille? Do we believe ourselves? That is, it is not the only city in the world that has camcorders to spy on its inhabitants in the streets of Pyongyang.