Actually, it's exhilarating to read a great piece of journalism that neither treats its audience like MTV battery-farm gristle nor newscast addicts, but is instead obsessed with contemporary reality while being totally aware of its own moral contradictions. To see a documentary that pushes the same buttons is nothing short of a miracle, but The Red Chapel by Danish award winning journalist/filmmaker Mads Brügger is exactly that.

So here's the deal: a filmmaker with the mission to denounce the destructive totalitarian system of North Korea pretends to be the director of a Danish-Korean comedy duo and suggests a cultural exchange via traditional Danish comedy with Kim Jong-il - or 'Atom-Kim', according to the German yellow press - country. To his surprise, Pyongyang accepts his offer. So the three jokers, Mads Brügger and the two comedians Simon Jul and Jacob Nossell (who actually is handicapped, or a spastic, as he would call himself) travel to North Korea's capital to unmask the system of The Dear Leader and portray the population struggling through it, while trying their very best to not get unmasked. Every step they take in Pyongyang is watched by Mrs. Pak, an elderly translator who has to make sure they're only filming images that show the true face of the country. The jaw-dropping result is as hilarious as it is horrifying. The game Brügger plays gives birth to a couple of truly insane scenes to which the suspense of hoping not to be discovered adds a thrilling dimension. One scene sees Brügger and the handicapped Nossell leading a gigantic rally on North Korea's most important national holiday (in memory of American imperialists declaring war with North Korea... the 'mother lie', as Brügger calls it). Another shows Nossell completely losing it, not only because he's reminded that usually disabled children in North Korea are most likely to either get killed at birth or moved to camps in the countryside, but because sticking to their ridiculously dangerous charade 24/7 simply is totally nerve-wrecking.

Mads Brügger is no stranger to outlandish stories. As an advocate of gonzo-journalism he exposed the right wing in America via Danes For Bush (together with his friend Jakob Boeskov with whom he also staged a company that tried to sell a fictional rifle at an international weapons fair in China). He was the responsible editor of several newspapers and magazines and won a couple of national Journalism awards with his controversial books. Lodown had the chance to talk with Denmark’s premium troublemaker about The Red Chapel in mid November 2009.

Mads, as far as I know there's only one art academy in Denmark... how does it work in terms of journalism? Is it kind of monopolised as well?

Actually, the Danish journalist educational system has been balkanised. Previously there only was one school, now there are three. The result is an enormous output of journalists, around 400 per year. In France they only train 40 journalists per year. If this continues everybody in Denmark will sooner or later become journalists.

I remember, when we talked to your friend Jakob Boeskov, he described the 'creative scene' in Denmark as having just state-sponsored freedom... since you're not shying away from touching provocative topics, I was wondering if you still have to struggle/negotiate as soon as it comes to airing or publishing your results?

No, never. I am always very suspicious of people who claim to be victims of censorship or repressive tolerance. Often they are not very good artists/journalists.

Boeskov, Refn, Van Trier, Brügger... how come a relatively small country like Denmark bred this generation of troublemakers that love to play with provocative subjects and civil disobedience?

First of all Denmark is a matriarchy. Most of the educational and nursing system is ruled by women... and women are not very good at dealing with boys who misbehave. Also - as the Muhammed Cartoon Crisis demonstrated - core Danish values include the right to behave as an idiot, and a total lack of respect for other people’s belief systems. The Danish state at one point even financed a film about Jesus coming back to Earth, where he has sex with prostitutes and runs around with a huge boner. I love being Danish.

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I certainly know about Gonzo, but please tell me a bit about your ideas/definition of Bonzo journalism...

This is a set of rules I developed for a project where I infiltrated an international clown festival, disguised as a clown. Bonzo journalism is: A) no use of tape recorders, B) do your best to destroy the event you have set out to cover, C) buy and consume as much vodka as you possibly can afford, D) no sleeping while you are on an assignment. There were other rules as well, but I can't remember them - but that's also Bonzo!

Usually journalists enjoy hiding (almost) anonymously behind their article or publications... you on the other hand always seem to look forward to being in the spotlight. Where does that come from?

Maybe it is because I had a lot of problems as a child because of my red hair. "Does your daddy have a rusty dick," the other kids at school asked me. This made me kind of shy and introverted, and now I am finally re-bounding.

A last question about your background before we start to talk about your brilliant The Red Chapel: you were the driving force behind Black Box Magazine and Döner Magazine... what were these all about?

Döner was a magazine who catered especially to criminal, Muslim immigrant boys. It featured stories about cars, dogs, martial arts and street wear. Of course most of the readers were white males. I even heard about a white boy who tried to steal a copy of Döner in Copenhagen’s most fancy zine outlet - which made me kind of proud. Black Box Magazine was about the idea of making a magazine as a sort of transport container, which in theory could contain anything: stickers, zines, clothes, and kitchen wear - whatever could be contained inside the box. But we only managed to produce one issue, which contained four very different and very weird zines - of which I really liked our version of a 21st century travel magazine. It was called 'I am back' and featured a thrilling report from Spitsbergen.

Actually, here's another one: over the last few years in particular you won a couple of national Journalist Awards... what do they mean to you?

It makes me feel more secure about myself. But after a while I always start to question the judgement of the people who gave me the award, and then I start to feel a lot more insecure about myself, because I am afraid that the people who showed me the honour will realise that they made a terrible mistake.

Finally here we go... I absolutely enjoyed The Red Chapel, one of the funniest and horrifying films I've seen lately. Please tell me about what triggered the project and the process of actually getting the permission to stage a wannabe comedy-show in North Korea's capital?

I was looking for a place where role play and lying is part of the basic structure of society - which is North Korea, the most evil dictatorship on the planet. I knew for starters that comedy is the soft spot of all dictatorships, and I also knew that communists are suckers for cultural exchange, so when I heard about a Danish Korean teenage stand up comedian who is a spastic, the idea crystallised. His name is Jacob Nossell - "Nossell" by the way, means "testicle" in Danish - and when I matched him with the insanely talented and gifted Danish Korean comedian Simon Jul - "Jul" means "Christmas" in Danish - I had a wonder working theatre troupe. Then I contacted the North Koreans and asked them if they were interested in cultural exchange with a Danish Korean theatre company consisting of Jacob and Simon and myself as a director - showcasing non ideological Danish comedy for The North Koreans. And to my amazement they loved the idea. And the fact that Jacob is handicapped was never a problem - on the contrary. I think they realised that Jacob could be used for propaganda.

Were family and friends trying to talk you out of this suicide mission? And what about Jacob's foster parents?

I will forever admire Jacob's foster parents for allowing Jacob to undertake this mission. It was a bit like Gandalf asking Frodo to go to Mordor and destroy the ring. Everything said 'don’t do it!’ Now I know that his foster parents understood that Jacob was the toughest of us all. When we were falling apart mentally, Jacob just kept on going. He has the mind of a navy seal. 

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At least the elite in Pyongyang certainly must have internet-access... how come they never heard of Mads Brügger before?

Maybe the Dear Leader likes to Google himself, but I actually think the North Koreans are extremely culturally chauvinistic... to a degree where they simply won't bother to investigate the background of people coming from other countries. They only care about themselves.

I can imagine that it took quite a while for you; Simon and Jacob to prepare for this daredevil project... did the reality in Pyongyang actually match your expectations?

Nothing can prepare you for Pyongyang. It's the most insane place in the world.

I wasn't quite sure if I should pity your local guide Mrs. Pak or if I just find her incredibly creepy... how was your personal experience with her?

Sometimes the facial structure of Mrs. Pak would fall in place... usually when she felt sure about us not looking at her. And then she would look like the loneliest, most traumatised and tormented woman in the world. Maybe she had a handicapped boy who was taken away form her at birth... which could explain the strange emotional bond between her and Jacob.

Were Simon's tattoos ever an issue with the North Korean authorities? And what about you wearing sunglasses all the time (which almost made you look like a Bond-villain btw) ... which I thought could be easily regarded as a disrespectful gesture?

Irony does not exist in North Korea. The more Simon was dressing up as The Dear Leader, the more the North Koreans loved him - not at one point did they contemplate that Simon could be mocking The Dear Leader. In fact we discovered that Simon represents the North Korean beauty ideal, and they did their best to try to persuade Simon to stay in North Korea and act in their motion pictures as an action hero. He could easily have become the North Korean Steven Segal or something like that. "Mr. Simon, you display a very powerful and manly emotion," Mrs. Pak would say to him. Regarding his tattoos, the North Koreans never spoke about them. But on the way back to Denmark, in Beijing airport, Simon was given special attention by the custom officers... who thought they had busted the biggest Yakuza boss in Asia.

The scene at the parade delivered one of the most insane images I've ever seen... are you able to recapitulate what you were feeling back then?

I was drunk at the time... to keep my nerves and my act together. I remember thinking; this is why The Nazis succeeded in taking over Germany... rallies like this really feel great.

It's incredible how sharp and outspoken Jacob is in the movie... I was wondering if there were moments when you felt that you had crossed a line, that you had just exploited him a little too much in order to get your message across? And what's your relation to him two years after your trip?

Jacob is much too bright and independent to be exploited by me. We are still friends. He calls me "Nigger Daddy" and I call him "Nigger Boy". It's very sweet. He is enrolled at university now.

I loved that over-sized pizza spatula you brought with you as a gift for the Dear Leader... is that guy really into Mediterranean cuisine?

Yes, he actually is. He even had his men go to Italy to find an Italian pizza chef who could make pizzas for The Dear Leader. He wrote a book about it afterwards.

How did it work in terms of the filmed material? If I understood it correctly, you had to hand over the tapes at the end of each day... so how much was actually censored?

Only very little. Some iconographically speaking non-pc recordings of The Dear Leader or his father, The Great Leader. We took great care to say anything in Danish which could be considered to be offensive by the regime. The only one who could speak his mind freely was Jacob, because I was certain that they never would be able to decode Danish as spoken by a spastic. It's a bit like how the Americans used Navajo Indians as radio operators during the Second World War.

And as a final question: what are you working on at the moment... what are the cards in 2010 holding for Mads Brügger?

I don’t like talking about my work before it is done. It's not because I want to keep it secret, but more because it takes away the incentive to finish the project. But I am sure that 2010 will be very interesting.

<sub>The Red Chapel / Denmark 2009 / 88 min / directed by Mads Brügger
www.zentropa.dk

words. Forty</sub>