DENNIS RODMAN'S BIG BANG IN PYONGYANG

In 2013, flamboyant basketball superstar Dennis Rodman accompanied the Harlem Globetrotters to North Korea as part of a media coup scored by Vice. There he met Kim Jong-un, the Supreme Leader — a man seen, just about everywhere else in the world, as the poster boy for evil. The absurd and unlikely meeting eventually led to a historic basketball game: a birthday present for the megalomaniacal tyrant in the form of a match, in North Korea, between American stars and a secret local team. The game was played away from prying eyes, remaining unseen until now.

Rodman is an irresponsible idiot turned disgusting propaganda tool. So we kept hearing, and so we believe. But do you know who won? Whether anything interesting happened between the third and fourth quarters? What the American players were still debating an hour before the game, under pressure from foreign media, unhappy sponsors and death threats? And did you know that Rodman, a recovering alcoholic, started drinking again, further complicating an already volatile situation (as in a notoriously explosive CNN interview)? At a time when we find North Korea as fascinating as ever, this film is a stunning look at a truly bizarre moment in the history of sports and politics where, despite appearances, nothing could be as simple. – Julien Fonfrède