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Pastor Rescues North Koreans in New Documentary
By Movieguide® Contributor
BEYOND UTOPIA shares the devastating journey that North Koreans face in order to escape their communist country.
The documentary features Pastor Sengeun Kim as he rescues people attempting to flee.
Pastor Kim has rescued over 1,000 North Koreans since 2000.
The documentary follows different people, but one woman featured, Soyeon Lee, was forced to leave her son behind when she escaped.
“I like to ask people to pray for me and also pray for those families who are separate,” Soyeon told CBN News. “They’re their own family because of the North Korean regime.”
CBN explained that the mother almost pulled out of the documentary because authorities captured her son “who was attempting to escape and sent him to a North Korean prison. After a lot of prayer, she said she decided to keep her story in the film hoping any publicity and global awareness might help protect her son.”
Despite the impossible circumstances, Soyeon believes that God will reunite her family.
“Because of God and people praying here, I know that I would meet him one day,” she said.
The conditions in North Korea are more hostile than people might realize. Forbes reported on the extreme conditions people in the country face.
“There are an estimated 80,000 to 120,000 individuals held inside North Korea’s modern-day gulags; women and girls are regularly subject to various forms of rape and sexual violence; food deprivation is the norm; and ordinary North Koreans don’t possess the freedoms that most people in democratic nations enjoy. As the UN report put it, North Korean human rights violations are ‘unparalleled’ in the modern world,” Forbes stated.
“This film definitely stopped me in my tracks when I watched it,” said Meira Blaustein, documentary programmer and co-founder of the Woodstock Film Festival in New York. “It’s heartbreaking but also inspiring…The people in it are all in pursuit of liberty and democracy.”
Pastor Kim explained why he’s dedicated to liberating North Koreans.
“The Bible [tells us] we need to help the people in the lowest place and hungry and the poor,” he said. “As I pray, I actually go rescue those people in need.”
The documentary premieres in some theaters October 23 and 24 and will release officially on November 3, 2023.
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