This 2023 documentary follows the stories of several people attempting to defect from North Korea. They are helped by Pastor Kim Sungeun, a human rights activist who uses a network of brokers and informants to help people escape.

North Korea is a sealed state. Little is known about the lives of its residents.

All we know about the country comes from the few who have managed to defect and from hidden camera footage taken inside the country and smuggled out.

The stories that have emerged describe a harsh regime of poverty, surveillance, and enforced ignorance about the outside world.

Beyond Utopia, a documentary by filmmaker Madeleine Gavin, gives an insight into what it takes to escape the North Korean regime and the people who try to help defectors.

The film follows two sets of escapees — a family attempting to flee from a sentence of banishment and a mother trying to get her son out of the country so they can be reunited.