“Where do human rights begin? In small places, close to home: the neighborhood; the school or collage; the factory, farm or office. Such are places where every man and woman seeks equal justice; equal opportunity; equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning here, they have little meaning anywhere.”
— Eleanor Roosevelt
The idea of human rights claims that all human beings possess the same basic rights no matter what their differences are, and that these rights put us in a reciprocal relationship of obligation to one another. Since human rights are the common birthright of every human being, respect is owed to all. Yet human rights are still widely denied, evaded, or ignored around the world.
North Korea is one of the most violent, oppressive, and authoritative places on Earth, and its human rights record is abominable. The regime of Kim Jong Un controls every aspect of life in the country, resembling the power hungry politics of Hitler’s Third Reich. The media, the schools, a massive surveillance system, and years of indoctrination has convinced many North Koreans to believe they are living in a utopia. This film focuses on those who know better.
Beyond Utopia, directed by Madeleine Gavin, won the documentary Audience Award at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. It illustrates how the yearning for freedom and human rights can cause people to take great risks.
At the heart and soul of this riveting documentary is Pastor Kim of South Korea. He is one of the most courageous members of the underground network supporting those who desperately want to escape North Korea. He is contacted by a family of five who have crossed the river separating North Korea and China and need help getting all the way to Thailand. A father, mother, two small children, and a grandmother have to travel by car and truck and eventually on foot through a treacherous land-mined jungle.
The documentary also covers the story of a mother who defected to South Korea but had to leave her son behind. She and Pastor Kim arrange for him to leave North Korea but he is captured. She does not know if he will survive.
This documentary was filmed in 2019, and it’s likely that both the scenes in North Korea and the ordeals defectors face remain the same today.