North Korea is the most secretive, repressive, and dangerous country in the world, with 26 million people living under the rule of Kim Jong-Un. Every year, hundreds of people try to escape, risking torture, banishment from society, a life sentence at one of the country’s gulags, and death — not only for themselves but their families too. In the new documentary Beyond Utopia, director Madeleine Gavin captured some of the last-known attempts at defection from North Korea before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Gavin tells KCRW that the project started when she discovered hidden camera footage that North Koreans shot using flip phones out of their pockets, paper bags, and sleeves. They were trying to show the world what life was truly like inside their country.
Some organizations — including one run by a pastor named Sung-eun Kim from South Korea — helped smuggle in the phones. Kim ended up being one of the film’s main subjects. He helped establish a network of hidden cameras along an 800-mile river border between North Korea and China, where devices go in and footage goes out.
“The country is cut off, hermetically sealed. … North Korea could not have sustained if the people weren't completely removed from the outside world.”
The government regime aims to prevent information from getting in and out of the country, Gavin says. Individuals caught distributing foreign content, including teenagers, have been executed.
Distrust is also pervasive among residents, which the government has ensured via a vast spay network, Gavin explains.
“There's spies within the next block, the next block, the next block. And those spies are often moved around. Often husbands and wives can't even trust each other, because you do get little benefits by turning other people in, and everybody is so desperate.”
She says the country’s residents can even be punished for making simple statements, such as “I’m hungry,” since it can be seen as a criticism of the regime.
North Korean residents are also required to hang a portrait of Kim Jong-Un’s family on the best wall in their homes. On hot summer days, they must point fans at the portraits to prevent heat damage.
“There's security guards who can come into any house at any time, and do, and they'll check if there's dust, if there's damage to the portrait. If you're not treating it well, with reverence and respect and care, you will be punished.”
In the film, Gavin tells the story of the Ro family, who risked everything in their attempt to defect — a husband and wife, their two daughters, and the wife’s 80-year-old mother. They were already on a banishment list because their previous kin had defected. They needed to cross a river between North Korea and China — and not get caught on the other side because China sent defectors back for severe punishment.
“They ended up on Changbai Mountain, they roamed around for five days, literally not knowing what to do or where to go. And they happened upon a farmer who knew someone, who knew someone, who knew someone in the underground railroad. And because of that, Pastor Kim was actually contacted. And when he heard that there were kids involved and a grandma, he went to his church and asked if they would fund this attempted rescue. And the church agreed, and the Ro family are incredibly lucky.”
After getting to China, the Ros needed to travel the underground railroad through Vietnam, Laos, then Thailand (sometimes the route changes and go through Mongolia and Cambodia). Pastor Kim joined them in Vietnam.
“Pastor Kim made a commitment to his god two decades ago, that not only was he going to devote his life to try to help North Koreans, but that he was going to go with them every step of the way,” Gavin says.
Gavin traveled with the family throughout their journey in Vietnam and Laos. To stay safe, she and her team followed cues from Pastor Kim.
Central to the project, Gavin states, was ensuring she received consent from a family to use their footage.
“When Pastor Kim and I decided to do this together and decided that we really want to make the same kind of movie that really went in deep, and really forced people to come face to face with North Koreans — because we have ignored them for 70-plus years, which is so outrageous … I knew, and he knew, that we might never be able to use any of this footage. You can't ask a family for consent when they've run over the river into China, and they don't even have a concept of what a film is.”
She adds, “If the family didn't agree, we weren't gonna use any of it.”
Gavin shares the example of a past defector named Soyeon, who now lives in South Korea. In the film, she’s attempting to get her son out of North Korea. Gavin wanted her to have the most up-to-date version of the film, right until the very end.
“I was shooting with her up until just a couple of weeks before we premiered. So with Soyeon, I had other versions of the film to premiere in case Soyeon decided at the last minute that she didn't want to be a part of this.”
How are defectors received when they arrive in South Korea? Gavin says it's a mixed bag. Some are welcomed with open arms by locals who feel like they’re embracing former family members. Others, however, face a societal stigma and have difficulty assimilating.
Meanwhile, some defectors, including the 80-year-old grandma, struggle with overcoming years of pro-North Korea indoctrination.
“North Koreans believe that they are the center of the universe, the most important country in the world, the best place to live in the world; and that Americans are these parasites who only exist to hurt them. So grandma believed that. … Witnessing grandma grapple with what she was experiencing with us first hand versus what she knew in her bones to be true — was like the unraveling of an onion of years of propaganda.”
Gavin says the underground railroad fell apart during the pandemic. The people who were helping mainly for financial reasons moved on, while those assisting for religious or humanitarian reasons had to find other ways to get by. Only within the last 10 months have routes begun rebuilding, she explains.
“I was shooting one of the cameras with Pastor Kim when he was receiving desperate calls from inside North Korea. And he had to tell people over and over again that there was nothing to be done because there was absolutely no movement possible through China.”