‘Beyond Utopia Review: A Badass Pastor Smuggles North Koreans To Freedom In Secret Sundance Doc

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2 Feb, 2023

‘Beyond Utopia Review: A Badass Pastor Smuggles North Koreans To Freedom In Secret Sundance Doc

Anyone who meets Pastor Seung Kim would never guess that he is one of the world's most secretive geopolitical agents. The mild-mannered Korean, whose first impression of his wife is that he looks like Kim Jong-il because of his big belly, looks more like GEICO's goofy dad than Jack Ryan. But don't let the looks fool you: Pastor Kim is a total ass. Over the past 10 years, he's helped more than 1,000 North Koreans escape to freedom—something that should make anyone looking beyond utopia reflect on their lives. If you have family members who want to escape Kim Jong Un's authoritarian regime, they should get in touch.

With a catalog of brokers, mercenaries, corrupt police, and safe houses, he runs pipelines carrying North Korean refugees on grueling journeys from China, Vietnam, and Laos to Thailand. Beyond Utopia, Madeline Gavin's last-minute addition to the Sundance cast, follows Kim as she tackles a daunting challenge even by her standards: moving the entire family, including preschoolers and an elderly grandmother, out of North Korea. without a victim. It's a feat of human ingenuity and perseverance that has to be seen to be believed, and even then you can't be sure it's real.

What is happening in North Korea is not a secret, but Westerners easily forget how bad the system is in the country. Everyone knows about the terrible propaganda and the starving children, but the country's isolated nature keeps them out of the news unless there is a rumor of a missile launch. Our attention is usually diverted as other bad actors on the world stage do more to stay in the headlines. Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine has made it impossible to ignore Vladimir Putin's crimes, and American corporations do so much business in China that we inevitably hear more about the CCP's genocide against the Uyghurs than about Kim Jong-un's brutality.

But anyone who needs a refresher on North Korean crimes will be refreshed within minutes of watching Beyond Utopia. Citizens were forced into such poverty—many of them living on the equivalent of two dollars a month—that all of the country's resources could be invested in the army. This army tries to keep Kim Jong Un in power at any cost and targets anyone who tries to flee the country. The police and military were called upon to be ruthless against anyone seeking a better life, and rewarded an extra furlough for every refugee killed.

This made Pastor Kim's job very difficult, but he was able to find enough loopholes in the system to give his client a glimmer of hope. He works with a network of middlemen in North Korea that connects citizens with the outside world at the right price. Very few geographic areas have cell service at all, and if someone figures out how to connect, they usually get tracked down. So he guides the family through a complex communication process that involves sending screenshots of handwritten emails through a network of middlemen on illegal cell phones. An exchange of the equivalent of a few text messages can take months, but people will do anything for the chance at freedom.

Once you've made the connection, it's time to make your travel plans. While South Korea is a desirable destination for most refugees, crossing the mine-strewn Demilitarized Zone is out of the question. Therefore, a North Korean refugee must first reach Thailand, which requires transit through China, Vietnam, and Laos, which has a resettlement agreement with North Korea. And sometimes this is the best case scenario, as North Korean travelers along the way are often sold as sex slaves or organ harvesting machines. Reverend Kim was well aware of the dangers of the journey, but the Roo family took the opportunity without hesitation.

Here's an unprecedented look at one of the world's most dangerous treks. Kim uses a fleet of trucks, planes, and boats to get the family from shelter to shelter, but they still have to trek through some treacherous sections. It seems incomprehensible that anyone would think of a director watching them through something like this, and it's even more incredible that the visuals are absolutely stunning.

However, Beyond Utopia often feels like a wasted opportunity, with sloppy editing decisions preventing the film from becoming the instant classic it should have been. While Pastor Kim's Escape Mission is a true geopolitical thriller based on a Tom Clancy's novel, Gavin didn't let his documentary unfold in this way. Instead of allowing one of these impossible missions to flow in a linear fashion, she interrupts the interview with someone talking about an unrelated topic when tension builds. There are a few moments when the film seems to deviate from the typical documentary formula and become something bigger, only to quickly backtrack and make some general comments about life in North Korea. The film was never intended to be a purely documentary about North Korean refugees, and its weakest point comes when it attempts to be a public interest film about North Korea featuring footage of the refugees.

But there comes a point where you don't need to be smart — because when life gives you a chance to look at a post like this, you don't turn it down. From an 80-year-old woman climbing a forested mountain in the middle of the night while dogs of war bark in the background, to a weeping mother showing her daughter fruit and flowers for the first time, Out of Utopia is filled with nonsense. Is this acceptable the framework in which the documentary media exist. Movies like Beyond Utopia are just like people like Pastor Kim - it's a miracle they exist and we should appreciate what we have.