Maija Blåfield’s The Fantastic was selected for the international short documentary film competition of the 60th Krakow Film Festival, held online from May 31 to June 7.
The Fantastic is a film about encountering the unknown and the relationship between imagination and reality. The film is built on interviews with exiled North Koreans, who describe what they imagined the outside world to be like, based on their experiences of watching smuggled western fiction films. Alternating documentary footage and visual effects, the film raises the question of how reality is defined and what we wish to believe in. The Fantastic reverses the set-up where westerners are peeping in on the everyday life of the closed-off state. In this film, it is the North Koreans who direct their curiosity at the outside world and imagine what life in Western countries is like.
Awarded with the main award of both National and Youth Jury at Tampere Film Festival, The Fantastic is also included in the selection of Hot Docs and Visions du Réel (international competition for short and mid-length films).
The 60th Krakow Film Festival, May 31 – June 7 2020, Poland
More information: Krakow Film Festival