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.
