Beyond Utopia

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.

This movie/documentary has blown me away.

The topic is uncomfortable for sure and there are some intense and dark moments in this film. But there are also lighter parts and hope, which is perfectly balanced throughout the movie.

The quality of the production is exceptional and extraordinary given the circumstances the crew must have been subject to. I can only imagine the harsh and dangerous episodes the crew had to endure by capturing what we see on screen.

I'm thankful that this documentary was made; it provides us a reality check by giving us insight in a world we couldn't even imagine it exists. Forget about sci-fi or fantasy or horror: this is an out-of-this-world experience that is actually real. The footage came across genuine and was never dramatized to cause more effect on the viewer. The storylines were intuitive and therefore touching. The political context was made very clear but not overly prominent or heavily judged; this wasn't needed as the footage spoke for itself.

The sound and editing were excellent and the cadence of scenes and dialogue felt very natural throughout.

After watching over 3000 films it's not easy to get overwhelmed, but this documentary managed to impact me substantially. My compliments to the filmmakers and the producer for taking the risk of trying to cover this topic and then delivering it in such a balanced way. I can highly recommend this film to anyone; watching this was a very "real" yet unexpected experience. 10/10 score and will definitely want to rewatch this soon.

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.

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.

Probably the most brutal documentary I've ever seen "Beyond Utopia", which tells the story of how desperate lower-class citizens try to escape from the hell of authoritarian tyranny in North Korea. The most terrifying part was that people would be publicly executed just for using a newspaper with Kim Jong- un's portrait on it to wrap cigarettes in private. Life seems insignificant under such torment.

They are, however, being propagandized that they live in a utopian-like country, and even Kim Jong-un is portrayed as a chosen son sent by God to save them. This pervasive and insane brainwashing is to emphasize the so-called utopia. Yet, the constant fear of having their lives taken away at any moment is a commonplace terror that can be seen everywhere in their lives.

In the end, the son of one of the mothers is caught and beaten to death during his escape attempt, which is suffocating. As those who manage to escape repeatedly emphasize, it's not that people living in this hell don't want to resist, it's that they have never even seen what freedom looks like.