Beyond Utopia is documentary filmmaking at its most thrilling and courageous, an essential viewing
Many of the best documentaries are ones that reach behind the scenes, peering into forbidden corners of society, and often the very existence of their footage pose risks to the filmmakers and their subjects. These influential films beg the question, how did they capture that?! It must have been extremely dangerous! The unfortunate reality is that the subject matters that require the most extreme precautions are also the ones that are most in need of public exposure. This is the case for Beyond Utopia, a new documentary that shows the real trials and tribulations of fleeing North Korea in unprecedented footage.
In the on-screen text that opens the film, we see that “the film contains no re-creations.” This sets the stage for a literal life-or-death experience caught on camera. The vast majority of images and video edited into the narrative are captured by the escapees and a few camera operators (often filming in secret) on the perilous journey with them through China, Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, and finally to South Korea. Beyond Utopia focuses most of its attention on two unfolding defector scenarios that are among the last few “known” attempts to flee North Korea before the pandemic. The Ro family consists of five members who have escaped across the Yalu River into the mountains of China and need help continuing on. Soyeon is a mother who had defected from North Korea many years earlier and is now trying to get her son out. However, at the heart of Beyond Utopia is Pastor Seungeun Kim. Pastor Kim is a fixer, fundraiser, navigator, advisor, and confidant all in one. By the film’s final frame, it’s difficult to overstate the impact of Kim’s selfless humanitarian efforts. Without him, the “underground railroad” out of North Korea would not exist.
Madeleine Gavin (City of Joy) is Beyond Utopia’s director and editor. She balances exposition and action and keeps the incredible escape footage at the forefront. She also wisely inserts animated and archival video segments explaining the historical context behind North Korea’s ruling communist regime. Beyond Utopia never lectures or bores. Instead, it uses these contextual breaks and additional interviews with escapees to illustrate how life inside North Korea could become so thoroughly controlled. Without spoiling too much, one of the most powerful sequences in the film occurs when recent escapees are introduced to the truth beyond North Korea’s borders, and we see how it challenges their brainwashed view of the world.
As thrilling and nail-biting as Beyond Utopia is, it’s also equally sad and harrowing — a singular documentarian achievement of celebratory, and devastating, proportions for those involved. One must remind oneself that what’s being shown is real. Lives are constantly at risk, on the brink of discovery and likely execution (or a prison death sentence). Gavin illuminates this humanitarian crisis in a manner that hasn’t been explored before, and every individual who participated in making this film, in front or behind the camera, has taken great personal risk to bring these stories to light.
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Beyond Utopia opens in select theaters for a limited engagement on October 23-24, and will return to theaters on November 3rd.
