BEYOND UTOPIA – Documentary Review

Posted by Jennifer Merin on Oct 21, 2023 | 0 comments

Beyond Utopia is Madeleine Gavin’s gripping documentary about North Koreans enduring the dangers of trying to escape their repressive country, risking their lives to reach Thailand, so they can eventually make their way to settlement in South Korea.

The film follows one family of five — Wu Hyukchang and his mother, sister, brother-in-law, and tow young nieces — are trying to get to Seoul so they can reunite with him and his other sister — as they navigate the only viable escape route, travelling illegally — by car that is stopped and checked frequently at security posts, and on foot over mountains and through dense jungle through China, Vietnam and Laos — all the while fearful that they will be caught and returned to North Korea where they will be severely punished.

The family is guided by a South Korean Pastor Seungeun Kim of the Caleb Mission Church who has made it his personal mission to help as many North Koreans as possible to escape to the south. He has risked his own life to help more than 1000 North Koreans to find safety and freedom in South Korea. If this true to life and harrowing documentary thriller has a hero, he certainly deserves the title.

Galvin also presents the heartbreaking story of a mother, activist Soyeon Lee, who escaped to South Korea more than a decade ago, leaving her young son behind. Once she’d established a new life in South Korea, she began trying to get him out. We follow her as she again attempts to buy his way to freedom so she can reunite with him after more than a decade of separation. We certainly feel her anguish as she studies a photo of her son while awaiting news about his progress and whereabouts.

Gavin effectively uses archival footage to represent the harrowing living conditions in North Korea and she captures the daunting challenges of clandestine escape with night vision infrared photography. The people she follows and their stories are truly compelling, especially when they describe what their lives were like in North Korea.

We often hear reports of abusive and inhumane conditions in North Korea, bur rarely get an inside glimpse like the one provided by this galvanizing documentary. It it is very hard to watch, but it is essential viewing.

FILM DETAILS:

Title: Beyond Utopia

Director: Madeleine Gavin

Release Date: October 23, 2023 (US limited)

Running Time: 95 minutes

Language: English and Korean, with English subtitles

Screenwriter: Madeleine Gavin (documentary)

Distribution Company: Roadside Attractions, Fathom Events