When you hear 'North Korea' what usually springs to mind? An isolated, hermit kingdom shrouded in secrecy? A State whose citizens are rigidly controlled and freedom is but a dream? Prison camps and an impending nuclear apocalypse? Or perhaps it's tales of banned sarcasm and compulsory identical haircuts?
While all that might well be true, two students from Sydney University secured tourist visas to visit North Korea, determined to find out for themselves -and record it all on in a 20-minute short film.
"I think the main reason we wanted to go was because in the media you hear a lot of stories about North Korea: how is very strange and bizarre," one of the film-makers, Alex Apollonov, tells SBS Serbian.
It's nearly impossible to get any reliable information from behind the bamboo curtain. Nonetheless, every week in the Western media, we are bombarded by the bizarre media-spectacle of North Korea. Any shred of information regarding North Korea becomes a viral media hit, regardless of how dubious the story is.
"When we started to look into some of those media stories we found out that a lot of them weren't true," says Apollonov.
One such story that started spreading in 2014, is that the country was forcing it's citizens to get identical haircuts to that of it's leader, Kim Jong-Un and that when it came to variety, both men and women were limited to choosing from a list of state-sanctioned hairstyles:
Apollonov, 25 and his mate, Serbian-Australian Aleksa Vulovic, 24, booked a six-day government group tour in North Korea last July to film, The Haircut: A North Korean Adventure. The 20-minute doco, available to watch on YouTube (below) was inspired by the viral story about Kim Jong-Un-inspired trims:
"A rumour that came out that every man in North Korea has to get the same haircut as Kim Jong Un," Apollonov says. So we decided to go there to prove you can get a haircut - and also make a film about these stories."
The film sees the pair jetted off to Pyongyang, the nation’s capital and follows their mission to get one such haircut themselves- booking Aleksa in for a trim.
All in spite of the Australian Government’s Smart Traveller website warnings advising Australians to reconsider their need to travel to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK).
"A lot of the bad things you hear about North Korea can often mask a lot of bad thinks that we hear about ourselves."
"We actually both got a haircut but I think my story was a bit easier to follow because I had really disgusting long hair before that so you could tell very well when my hear was cut", says Aleksa.
"And I think everyone in Sydney was begging him to get haircut!" added Alex.
What is the exact point that Alex and Aleksa are making with this movie?
Aleksa - before and after his North Korean haircut Source: Aleksa - supplied
"I guess there is two sides to every story. We hear a lot of thinks about North Korea but I guess a lot of the bad things you hear about North Korea can often mask a lot of bad thinks that we hear about ourselves. So I think it is important to look at every side of the story before you decide the truth" says Aleksa .
Listen to their whole interview with SBS Serbian. In English: Top
Listen to Vulovic's interview in Serbian - below:
Related from SBS OnDemand
Pyongyang Postcard
What's life really like in North Korea? Dateline gets an insight.
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