Corée du Nord - Le prix de la liberté

My favorite movies are the ones that shatter my heart into a million pieces, and this documentary shook me to the core. "Beyond Utopia" is a powerful testament to human strength, skillfully crafted through brave filmmaking that takes us deep into the lives of families striving to escape North Korean oppression. The film's eye-opening portrayal of their journey exposes a world hidden from most of us, serving as a poignant reminder of the lengths people will go to for freedom. In today's world, where social cinema holds immense importance, this documentary stands as a prime example of its significance. However, be prepared for a very tough watch as it showcases the unfiltered reality these families endure.

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.

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.

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.

It is easy to think we are already aware that North Korea is "bad", and that its citizens are "oppressed". But can we really imagine what this means every day for the human beings living there? The importance of this film can be overstated. It transcends being "just" a film and becomes a cry for help that all of the free world must heed. Many people literally risked their lives for these stories to be told, and the least we can do to honor them is to hear their stories first hand.

Nazi comparisons today are often thrown around carelessly, however, what is happening in North Korea is truly worthy of the comparison without a hint of hyperbole. But there are some amazing individuals doing their part to make a difference, and it is inspiring to learn more about them in this film.

As of this writing, there is no US distribution for "Beyond Utopia". It seems no one (yet) has the backbone to release this to all Americans. It's likely that echoes of what happened to Sony Pictures with the release of "The Interview" still lingers for some executives. But that risk is so superficial compared to what North Korean citizens are facing every minute. The actions of North Korea deserve to be uncloaked, and this film is a giant step in that direction.