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  • 2017
  • SundanceNOW.com
  • 1 h 40 m
  • 2017
  • SundanceNOW.com
  • 1 h 40 m

Summary Under the loving but firm guidance of an old fan turned director and cultural diplomat and to the surprise of a whole world, the ex-Yugoslavian cult band Laibach becomes the first foreign rock group ever to perform in the fortress state of North Korea. Confronting strict ideology and cultural differences, the band struggles to get their ...

Directed By: Ugis Olte, Morten Traavik

Written By: Morten Traavik

  • 2017
  • SundanceNOW.com
  • 1 h 40 m
  • 2017
  • SundanceNOW.com
  • 1 h 40 m

Liberation Day

Metascore Generally Favorable Based on 7 Critic Reviews
65
User Score Available after 4 ratings
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Summary Under the loving but firm guidance of an old fan turned director and cultural diplomat and to the surprise of a whole world, the ex-Yugoslavian cult band Laibach becomes the first foreign rock group ever to perform in the fortress state of North Korea. Confronting strict ideology and cultural differences, the band struggles to get their ...

Directed By: Ugis Olte, Morten Traavik

Written By: Morten Traavik

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Critic Reviews

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Metascore
Generally Favorable Based on 7 Critic Reviews
65
71% Positive
5 Reviews
29% Mixed
2 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews

  • All Reviews
  • Positive Reviews
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  • Negative Reviews

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
Generally Favorable Based on 7 Critic Reviews
65
71% Positive
5 Reviews
29% Mixed
2 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews

  • All Reviews
  • Positive Reviews
  • Mixed Reviews
  • Negative Reviews
80
Oct 16, 2017
Billed as a “documentary musical,” this potential crowd-pleaser gets considerable comic mileage out of the friction between two very different brands of cultural eccentricity — but it succeeds as more than a diverting novelty, packed as it is with pointed observations on diplomacy and censorship in a country that’s still a mystery to many.
By Guy Lodge FULL REVIEW
80
Oct 16, 2017
The mystery remains: did the North Koreans get it? Did they not get it? Or did they choose a foggy condition of semi-incomprehension as the only state in which they could reconcile ideological piety with reaching out the hated west?
By Peter Bradshaw FULL REVIEW
70
Oct 26, 2017
More detail about how this concert came to be — and what it means to both the performers and their patrons — would’ve made Liberation Day more illuminating, at least as a piece of journalism. But there’s a subtly meaningful power to what the film actually does.
By Noel Murray FULL REVIEW
67
Oct 18, 2017
Rather than spend more time with the band, Traavik tries to milk additional drama from North Korea’s diplomatic tensions.
By David Ehrlich FULL REVIEW
63
Oct 15, 2017
Throughout, the documentary wavers between a sincere investigation of the avant-garde music group Laibach and self-satire.
By Peter Goldberg FULL REVIEW
60
Oct 18, 2017
Liberation Day, a documentary of preparations for the concert directed by Mr. Traavik and Ugis Olte, is a consistently understated chronicle of Westerners who are very carefully playing with fire.
By Glenn Kenny FULL REVIEW
50
Oct 17, 2017
The odd subject matter should have made for a riveting film, but, like many documentaries, Liberation Day (the title refers to the North Korean holiday celebrating the anniversary of the end of Japanese rule) feels both too short and too long.
By Frank Scheck FULL REVIEW

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Details

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Production Company VFS Films, Traavik, Norsk Fjernsyn, Mute Records, Staragara
Release Date Oct 18, 2017
Duration 1 h 40 m
Genres
Website http://www.liberationday.film/
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Awards

Latvian National Film Festival
• 4 Wins & 5 Nominations
Soundtrack Cologne
• 2 Wins & 2 Nominations

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