I avoided Beyond Utopia last year because I was suspicious of the movie. It’s a documentary about escaping North Korea and I figured it’d be pretty one-sided, maybe even faked… so watching a 2 hour anti-Korean propaganda piece was concerning.

But I heard enough people say the film is legit… and, besides, even if the filmmakers have an axe to grind, North Korea and Kim Jong Un make it easy to grind axes. As a pastor in the film says, “I don’t dislike the North Korean regime… I hate them.”

The bulk of the film follows a family crossing into China and making their way south to safety in Thailand. A film crew is travelling with them which is startling enough. The doc also covers a woman who had previously escaped trying to work with brokers to get her son freed from the north.

These two stories are interspersed with some basic but informative Korean history and the state of the North today. Most of this lines up with things I’ve heard or read about before so I believe it to be true. Only one thing set my smear campaign alert (and what an accurate word to use “smear”) that North Koreans have to collect their poo all year so they can carry it in bags and buckets to farmers in the spring. Might be true… sure sounds crazy!

Anyhow, this is a pretty fantastic documentary. The escape footage is amazing and watching the fleeing family start to realize what they’ve been told about the outside world was a lie is great. The most heartbreaking moment is an interview with the grandmother who can’t bring herself to believe she’d been lied to (and her grandkids who still thing Kim Jong Un is the greatest man to have ever lived).

I wish the film had been able to get interviews with the brokers helping the family escape… but given they’d be shot to death if revealed, I get why they couldn’t. But I was almost more fascinated by why they do this job and if it’s as money-driven as the filmmakers say.

This is a pretty terrific doc and I needn’t have been worried about its objectivity. Because it isn’t entirely objective and nor should it be. These are lived that being crushed so no reason to “both sides” the argument. It’s a great, harrowing film that reminds us of the lengths people will go through to protect their family and breath free.

Score: 90