The Red Chapel

I watched my last film at MIFF (Melbourne International Film Festival) on Thursday: The Red Chapel. It's a documentary about North Korea - the Danish director and two Danish comedians born in South Korea (presumably without South Korean passports) visit the country on the pretext of doing a comedic theatrical performance. The film won Best Foreign Documentary at Sundance, and there was a full house of about 300 (mainly Australian) people to see it.

The monuments and places visited didn't interest me so much; I have been to North Korea and everyone who goes there, whether tourist, journalist or diplomat, sees the same things. What was great about the film was that the younger comedian Jacob showed so perfectly the contrast of emotion in any North Korean visit. Your North Korean hosts are so unbelievably kind and generous to you, it is hard to remind yourself of what actually goes on there, and even harder to bring it up in conversation.

There was a great moment at the end where the director gets Jacob, who has cerebral palsy, to ask his female host why he hasn't seen any other disabled people in Pyongyang. But before she thinks of an answer, Jacob rescues her by saying that he should meet some on his 'next visit'. I know exactly that feeling. It was very difficult for me to ask the hard questions, particularly when you are being filmed all the time (as all tourists are) and when there is a more senior onlooker in attendance. There is no danger to you, but the consequences for your host is one of the many unknowns.

There was nothing of interest to me at MIFF on its final weekend, so instead I took a cycle ride from the hills of Belgrave, on the Eastern end of the metropolitan train line, South West to the beach at Carrum. The first section of the ride links Belgrave to the pretty Lysterfield Lake area via some rather muddy tracks through Birds Land Reserve. It was heavier going than I expected, and at one brief point I had to get off the bike a walk it through the mud. A commuting bike was not the ideal piece of equipment for this section of the ride. Rough tracks comprised the remainder of the route from Monbulk Retarding Basin to Lysterfield Lake. Around Lysterfield Lake is the State Mountain Bike Course; a large network of mountain bike trails that were built a few years ago for the 2006 Commonwealth Games. The local cafe doubles as a bike shop where you can rent or buy mountain bikes, some with price tags of over 6,000 AUD.

It's a faster run from now onwards, cycling through some country roads and linking up with the asphalt bicycle track alongside the Monash Freeway. On this section, just South of Lysterfield Lake is Yun Yang Temple: a large Chinese temple complex (pictured below) which was well worth a look around. The residential roads of Wattle Drive and Box Street allow you to link up with the Dandenong Creek Trail and from there is the direct run, mainly on wide bicycle tracks, to Carrum. The Dandenong to Carrum run is a well known route for Melbourne cyclists; a good fast route away from traffic, and a nice energetic way to end a ride. After a quick stroll on the beach, a coffee was the order of the day before catching the train home.



Cycling Distance: 48 kms