Far from Flawless Socialist Cinema: Shifting Hungarian Judgments of North Korea’s Ceaseless Cinematic Schematism

Abstract: Throughout the Cold War era, the film partnership between the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) and the Hungarian People’s Republic (HPR, 1949–1989) remained steadfast, manifesting through various avenues such as film exchanges and exhibitions. A multitude of prominent North Korean creations—ranging from early seminal works like My Home Village (1949) or Partisan Boys (1951), to the revered “Immortal Classics,” including Sea of Blood (1969) and The Flower Girl (1972), alongside family melodramas such as The Fate of Geumhui and Eunhui (1974), traditional folktales like The Tale of Chunhyang (1959), and experimental endeavors, such as An Emissary of No Return (1984)—served as poignant reflections of the diverse cinematic epochs and altering policies within the DPRK. North Korea reciprocated by exhibiting Hungarian productions at specialized film events, with a noteworthy uptick in frequency during the 1980s, coinciding with the expansion in broadcasting of Eastern European works on North Korean television channels. Nevertheless, this does not imply that Hungarian film critics demonstrated unwavering solidarity in their engagement with North Korean counterparts. During the 1950s, film articles exuberantly celebrated North Korean cinema for its steadfast adherence to Soviet socialist realist paradigms. However, this narrative shifted profoundly with the advent of the Hungarian New Wave in the 1960s, as Hungarian film critics began to adopt a more critical stance, scrutinizing the formulaic narratives prevalent in North Korean cinema. These voices expressed discontent with the overt imposition of personality cults, the pervasive sense of ennui induced by the films, and an aesthetic saturated with repetitive tropes ad nauseam. This study investigates the changing reception and assessment of North Korean cinema by Hungarian socialist film critics, drawing upon archival documents and analytical pieces sourced from Hungarian film publications spanning the designated periods.