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.
