This Is What It's Like Inside North Korea's Luxury Ski Resort | Short Film Showcase

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My name is Jamie Barrow and I'm Britain's fastest snowboarder. We're here in the beautiful Beijing on the Great Wall of China, and tomorrow, thanks to tours, we have been given special permission to film and snowboard within the most secretive country in the world: North Korea.

I'm always looking for exciting new projects, and when I found out there is a ski resort in North Korea, I couldn't miss the opportunity. It was nice to meet a mixture of tourists who were going, and we were excited to find out why they chose North Korea out of anywhere in the world. Not many people really know about the country, which is one of the main reasons I want to go. I'm looking forward to just seeing firsthand what the country is really about and getting to know the people, the culture.

I live a very structured life, and I just had, like, impulsive, okay, I want to do something crazy now. Maybe the biggest thing is the question you don't know what's here. You get a picture through Western media which might or might not be very SK.

Despite many people advising us not to go, and there being a missile test just days before we headed into Pyongyang, when we landed, we met up with two guides and a driver who would be watching over us for the week. Our first stop was the great bronze Mansu Day statues, where we were told to lay flowers to show our respects to the leaders.

Finally, got on Valentine's Day; it might not be for the right [Music] reason. We arrived at the hotel late that night. It was isolated on an island away from the city, and we were forbidden from leaving unattended. There was a revolving restaurant, a casino that wasn't open, a swimming pool, and even a bowling alley.

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Good roast flatfish, fried chicken with breadcrumbs, and vegetables sat for breakfast under the watchful eye of our tour guides. We were whisked around the city to see all the sites. More great statues and marble monuments pay tribute to the leaders and serve as a reminder of the Korean War and a country divided in two.

Traveling around the city, we looked for a glimpse of what everyday life is like in Pyongyang. Our guides were always watching us, making sure we would only film what they wanted us to see. From the media, you see like empty streets, and everything being staged for a tour is very scripted. But being here, it's obviously not the whole truth.

Many of the places we visited, the streets were empty, but preparations were being made for the leader's birthday, and we were taken to see some traditional mass dancing. Someone said, like, when we come here, they think that we are the devil, and we think that they are robots. Right? It turns out that neither of us are right. You do get to see what North Koreans do and how they live their life, and you meet people.

It's been surprising.

180 km south of Pyongyang is the demilitarized zone, the most heavily militarized border in the world. They were proud to show us all the American planes, tanks, and helicopters that were captured in the Korean War.

Okay, yeah, that would not have been good being in [Music]. They were particularly proud of the USS Pueblo, an American spy ship that caused an international incident when it was attacked and captured by North Korea in 1968.

Looks more comfortable than our bed in the hotel.

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Actually, I'm trying to keep an open mind for it all. It's a bit... yeah, I don't know how to describe it. What's more weird is that literally no one is around; we're the only ones in the whole [Music] museum.

After an exhausting few days in Pyongyang, it was Kim Jong-il's birthday, and we were treated to the biggest fireworks display we had ever seen.

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Today, we're heading up to the ski resort. Had a good few days in Pyongyang and really looking for a good few days riding on the mountain. That was just m blown by the resort, this amazing hotel at the end of a 4-hour bumpy ride, pops out of [Music] nothing.

We made it to the Mass Ski Resort; it's a bit crazy to actually be here. I'm smiling a lot more now, excited. It's a few days in the city, and now we're finally in the mountains; it's good, and Kim's looking forward to it as [Music] well.

We checked in and set off to explore the hotel. It was the first time we were allowed out on our own without our tour guides. There's not one person coming down the big slopes; there's some nice steep slopes. We can get some speed on that, so we're going to go downstairs into the basement where all the excitement of the hotel happens.

North Korean haircut. Oh, here we go! Here are the different North Korean haircuts you can get.

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How much? One dollar, because these are [Music] coupons.

What? She... no, don't laugh, but that was fun. I want to have J. It feels a little weird, to be perfectly honest, but it is beautiful, not in line with much other stuff that we see, except maybe Mausoleum. There's always someone helping you, and they're catering to you.

So, this is the room where Rod [Music].

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Is that one snake? Two?

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Snak [Music] for [Music]

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As our guides have been so kind in pointing us in the right direction, we thought it would only be right to return the favor.

B St B. Okay, there you go, that's it. Hold that toes up; it's good. It's okay; I'm here, don't worry.

Okay, you going to point forward again? You ready? Keep going, keep going, keep going. Good, good, good, good, good, good. Hold on hands; you getting the hang of there? And they look; see the smile on their face as well, it's quite nice.

Good, good, good; yeah, good. She said, uh, this is better than skiing. This is what we're trying to get.

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Going good; very good. She's crazy. She's like, no, I want to go from here; I want to go higher. I want to go faster. Isn’t this? This is awesome!

Well, [Music] done. We're going up to the first run. It seems like everyone's down on the beginner slopes and intermediate slopes, so the slopes from the top, there's not one person coming down, so it's completely free for us.

You have to keep pinching yourself, realizing where you are. We're in North Korea.

Going [Music]

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Snowboarding.

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Oh!

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It's our last day in the DPRK, and you never get this fresh powder day, sunny sky, and absolutely no one else on the slopes.

I still don't know what it is; I don't know what's going on here. I mean, obviously, there's the politics and there's the people, and they're separate things. Most everything I came in with has sort of been tossed out or rethought.

I'm not really sure how to put it to words, but I do have a completely different view of this country for sure. There are some places we may never truly understand, and we can only show to you what was shown to us: a small piece of a much bigger picture.

Nonetheless, the opportunity to glance inside the most secretive country in the world gave us a few more answers and a lot more questions than we started out with.

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