One cannot say that their life is perfect, although sometimes, we comfort ourselves with the realization that our lives within Western capitalism are slightly better than others. That feels condescending but it’s true when we look at our daily life in comparison to what Lee Hyeonseo experienced as a child living in North Korea. There are the general things she says, like how defecting made her realize the truth about the Kim family. But other interviews in Madeleine Gavin’s Beyond Utopia has her talking about having to watch executions at age seven. What they see is what the Kim family allows them to see.

Beyond Utopia calls to interview subjects like Lee Hyeonseo to supplement its bigger story arc, as it mainly follows Kim Sengeun, a South Korean reverend. Sometimes, he doesn’t get calls, and at others he gets double digit calls from North Koreans on both sides of the border who want to bring their families south. For coherence’s sake, the film follows two of those families. The first is Lee So-yeon, who lives in the South and hears that her son wants to follow her. The second is the Roh family, who want to join their Southern relatives because life in the north is precarious.

Beyond Utopia is not my first North Korean escape documentary, so I know the circuitous nature of the route. This documentary, though, gives more detail to just how dangerous these routes can be. It has contemporaneous pre-pandemic footage of the Roh family’s escape. Because Gavin’s presence can put the family in danger, she can’t film them all the time. She relies sometimes on footage from brokers who are playing her, Kim Sengeun, and the Roh family for profit. It mixes that footage with surveillance footage common in the People’s Republic of China. That’s just one of three other Communist countries where they have to elude authorities.

South Korea is a bittersweet place to live for these refugees, and this is a reality that Beyond Utopia acknowledges especially while handling Lee So-yeon’s arc. It’s good to escape the North, but that also means leaving family behind. The documentary shows the clothes she buys for the son who doesn’t even make it past the Changbai mountains before authorities send him back to the North. Her interviews are particularly heartbreaking. She gives permission for the documentary to show his picture, as seeing him feels like a call for hope. So that he’ll no longer be a pawn and start living with true freedom.

Beyond Utopia comes to Canadian theatres on November 3. Also, please donate to HanVoice, a chairty supporting refugees from North Korea.