Beyond Utopia (2023)

Ably stitched together using hand-held, mobile phone and other discreetly shot footage, this documentary tells of people desperate to flee the poverty and oppression they face living in North Korea. It principally follows one particular family who must travel, at great peril to themselves, their guides and "brokers" across the Yalu river into China before continuing through Vietnam, Laos and hopefully across the Mekong into the safety of Thailand. Along the way, though, we are also introduced to other people with equally horrendous stories to tell of family stuck in a nation where malnutrition is rife, clean water is scarce and you are even expected to provide your own poo to the government for use as fertiliser! You must regularly dust your obligatorily hung photos of the "Dear Leader" else you're in for a severe beating... Indeed, for much of this film of all that's dystopian about life there, you could be forgiven for thinking it was all a figment in the mind of some fiction writer - except, I doubt they could make it up! There's a strong testament to the perseverance and resilience of the travellers - young and old - as they struggle with the fear and the jungle to make good their escape. What we see here is that, clearly, this is no walk in the park and it seems to me that many more don't make it than do - and that those who did were shocked by the false messages being conveyed to the outside world by their erstwhile leaders. The intimate nature of the photography and the simple evocative narrative work well here, too, and by midway through I genuinely felt invested in the survival and prosperity of these fundamentally decent people who were just "born in the wrong country"