Beyond Utopia

Beyond Utopia is not a journey into the "hermit kingdom" (as other documentaries have attempted over the decades) but a journey out, for those lucky enough to get the opportunity. As Pastor Kim - the film's de facto hero - says, the hard part is not crossing the North Korea/China border, but navigating to safety from China, all the way to South Korea via Thailand. A fraught and treacherous journey indeed, one that is becoming more difficult all the time.

One of the most extraordinary elements of this film is that we, the audience, are privileged to accompany a family of defectors (they were actually banished but I won't go into that) all the way through this exhausting endurance test, and hopefully to safety. Said family is certainly not one you would wish to put through such hardship, consisting as it does of two girls around 6-8 years old, their parents and their grandma of 80 years. An unlikely group of survivors - but these are North Koreans, a people whose hardiness and determination are showcased with extraordinary vividness throughout this film.

The mere act of capturing unauthorised footage in the country is highly dangerous, and yet there is plenty to see here (including some distressing footage of public executions and secret beatings). But the focus is always on the people, their stories, their feelings, their worldview. The filmmakers intentionally make the things about NK we always see on the news (Kim Jong Un, the nukes, the palace intrigue) only background to the realities of everyday life.

But the most extraordinary element of all is Pastor Kim himself, a tirelessly heroic champion who coordinates the journey of the family via the many anonymous brokers who lead, drive and accommodate them on their long journey south. Remarkably, he personally escorts them through much of the journey despite a number of personal injuries and medical complaints, just as he has with hundreds of others before (and hopefully hundreds more in the future).

This is an incredibly emotional journey that is impossible not to feel on the deepest level. A more powerful and intimate documentary about this strange and terrifying country and its people is hard to imagine. By shining such a bright light on the struggles of some of the world's most oppressed citizens, this is a hugely important film that will inspire sympathy across the world, and hopefully even some positive change for North Koreans.

This film is outstanding.

One of the things about North Korean coverage in general is the tendency for major news brands to craft a somewhat sanitized story about the personality cult of Kim Jong-Un (a fat, spoilt dictator) and his powerful sister (creepy, bloodless, etc).

The issue here is that it evades the real issue with North Korea, namely the suffering public that have endured famine followed further food shortages, public executions and lived in undeveloped squalor amid the sham of fascist indoctrination and state powers that prolong the poverty and repressive nature of the place but require utmost respect from the citizenry.

Throughout the film, without spoiling details, we see the complexities, danger and, at times, heroism of real people escaping the ruins of the Kim dynasty, including rarely seen footage of the state that, not surprisingly, is kept from public view.

The family in much of the narrative leaves in unison, meaning that young children and grandparents also must cross rivers, mountainous terrain and deal with possibly deceptive fixers (or "brokers") that can arrange the network of vans and safe-houses allowing North Koreans to travel thousands of kilometers across Asia to find land where they can be classified as defectors.

At the viewing I attended, audiences were obviously moved by the repressiveness and deprivation of North Korean lives and the relatable humanity of it's victims.

In this particular feature documentary, a South Korean pastor who'd long ago left the North is able to assist with their travels. Having lost a family member in an earlier personal tragedy, Pastor Sengeun Kim risks life and limb helping other family members to improve their lives.

It's not well understood (or perhaps believed) how repressive the North's rules are - defectors risk being shot or may receive severe physical beatings, at worst they may die in the nation's gulag system. Others leave only to be sold into sex trafficking or other exploitative schemes. Some defectors wish to get family members out but are unable to, as the information ban and threat level from the state severely complicates freedom of movement and basic human rights.

Something lasting about seeing this item is that it's human qualities are moving, and authentic. As mentioned, much of the "coverage" we receive of North Korea is factual but also fabricated from motion graphics, recycled news footage, alternately tourists are sometimes allowed by rail from China for brief stage-managed visits of the brighter buildings of Pyongyang where visitors are led to well-maintained memorial statues of their permanent head of state and his offspring. Beyond Utopia actually examines the predicament of lives being lived in North Korea.

Saw this at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival

"Beyond Utopia" is a documentary that follows families as they attempt to escape oppression, revealing a world most of us have never seen. This one won the Audience Award for U. S. Documentary Competition and I managed to get tickets to this one at the last minute and this was surprisingly pretty great.

The concept is something we have heard before but the film does a good job and exploring the dystopia of North Korea and explores political aspects that are genuinely uncomfortable to watch. Throughout, the film has great presentation, the interviews from the participants were interesting to listen as they provide a good insight of their escapes and experiences with North Korea. The direction was pretty good as the film maintains a steadily tone and good structure.

There are scenes of video footage in North Korea prisons or camps that were really difficult to watch and makes the stomach feel pretty uncomfortable to witness. Never once felt bored when watching this film. I can see why it won the awards.

Rating: A+

Ever since seeing "Beyond Utopia" I've been thinking about what makes a top-class documentary. It doesn't need to be entertaining, since that's the job of fiction, but it must be compelling and almost more than real. Maybe that's the trick? To show you an aspect of the world that you'd dismiss as unbelievable if you didn't know it to be true.

That's exactly what you get here. I knew, vaguely, that North Korea was this bizarre puppet state founded by Kim Il Sung and propped up by Russia. I also knew that his dynasty inculcated an almost religious aura around themselves as the father, mother and spirit of the country.

What I didn't know, or consider, was just how these so-called leaders managed to persist in the face of economic collapse, famine and prosperity elsewhere. What they've managed to combine is nationwide brain-washing and a totalitarian state of control that would make Stalin proud.

And yet that still doesn't get to the heart of the darkness. To control the population everyone is spying on everyone else. If you step out of line then you're sent to a reeducation camp. If you really step out of line (by trying to flee the country perhaps) then you wind up in the gulag and no one comes back from the gulag. But before then you'll be beaten, tortured and crushed with your family being forcibly relocated to another part of the country.

Despite this the poor North Korean people in "Beyond Utopia" still love their nation and why shouldn't they. It's where they belong and where their culture resides. The problem is that the communist state forces them to leave and to leave everything behind. It's just horrific on all counts.

The film pulls absolutely no punches in following the perilous journey undertaken by the refugees being tracked. There really isn't much of a happy ending for anyone when you dig into the meat of the story and there aren't any winners. Just victims of a murderous regime. That said it's a must watch if you want to be educated.

It is easy to think we are already aware that North Korea is "bad", and that its citizens are "oppressed". But can we really imagine what this means every day for the human beings living there? The importance of this film can be overstated. It transcends being "just" a film and becomes a cry for help that all of the free world must heed. Many people literally risked their lives for these stories to be told, and the least we can do to honor them is to hear their stories first hand.

Nazi comparisons today are often thrown around carelessly, however, what is happening in North Korea is truly worthy of the comparison without a hint of hyperbole. But there are some amazing individuals doing their part to make a difference, and it is inspiring to learn more about them in this film.

As of this writing, there is no US distribution for "Beyond Utopia". It seems no one (yet) has the backbone to release this to all Americans. It's likely that echoes of what happened to Sony Pictures with the release of "The Interview" still lingers for some executives. But that risk is so superficial compared to what North Korean citizens are facing every minute. The actions of North Korea deserve to be uncloaked, and this film is a giant step in that direction.