Past Utopia | Movie Overview

“The place do human rights start? In small locations, near dwelling: the neighborhood; the college or collage; the manufacturing facility, farm or workplace. Such are locations the place each man and girl seeks equal justice; equal alternative; equal dignity with out discrimination. Until these rights have that means right here, they’ve little that means wherever.”
— Eleanor Roosevelt

The thought of human rights claims that each one human beings possess the identical primary rights it doesn’t matter what their variations are, and that these rights put us in a reciprocal relationship of obligation to at least one one other. Since human rights are the frequent birthright of each human being, respect is owed to all. But human rights are nonetheless broadly denied, evaded, or ignored all over the world.

North Korea is among the most violent, oppressive, and authoritative locations on Earth, and its human rights file is abominable. The regime of Kim Jong Un controls each side of life within the nation, resembling the ability hungry politics of Hitler’s Third Reich. The media, the colleges, a large surveillance system, and years of indoctrination has satisfied many North Koreans to imagine they’re dwelling in a utopia. This movie focuses on those that know higher.

Past Utopia, directed by Madeleine Gavin, received the documentary Viewers Award on the 2023 Sundance Movie Competition. It illustrates how the craving for freedom and human rights could cause folks to take nice dangers.

On the coronary heart and soul of this riveting documentary is Pastor Kim of South Korea. He is among the most brave members of the underground community supporting those that desperately wish to escape North Korea. He’s contacted by a household of 5 who’ve crossed the river separating North Korea and China and need assistance getting all the best way to Thailand. A father, mom, two young children, and a grandmother should journey by automobile and truck and finally on foot by means of a treacherous land-mined jungle.

The documentary additionally covers the story of a mom who defected to South Korea however needed to go away her son behind. She and Pastor Kim prepare for him to depart North Korea however he’s captured. She doesn’t know if he’ll survive.

This documentary was filmed in 2019, and it’s doubtless that each the scenes in North Korea and the ordeals defectors face stay the identical right now.