A suspenseful, immersive look at the lengths to which people will go to gain freedom. The film follows various individuals as they attempt to flee North Korea, one of the most oppressive places on earth and a land they grew up believing was a paradise. \n\nAt the film’s core are a mother desperate to reunite with the child she was forced to leave behind; a family of five - including small children and an elderly grandmother - embarking on a treacherous journey across the Yalu River and into the hostile mountains of China; and a South Korean Christian pastor on a mission to help them.\n\nLeaving their homeland is fraught with danger - severe punishment if caught and possibly even execution - as well as potential exploitation by unscrupulous brokers. Family members who remain behind may also face retribution. Yet these individuals are driven to take the risk. \n\nGripping, visceral and urgent, Madeleine Gavin’s film embeds the viewer with these family members as they attempt their perilous escape, palpably conveying life-or-death stakes.
Source: BBC 4
Whirlybird: Live Above La
Flying high above Los Angeles in a whirling news helicopter, Marika Gerrard and Zoey Tur (then known as Bob) spent the 80s and 90s capturing the city’s most epic breaking ...
18-03-2025
BBC 4
Eternal Spring: The Heist Of China’s Airwaves
In 2002, a group of Falun Gong practitioners in China came up with an audacious plan to hit back at the government’s crackdown on their faith. They hijacked the airwaves, ...
12-03-2025
BBC 4
The Covid Queue At Pavilion 6
A humorous and humane snapshot of life in a Covid-19 vaccine centre. Five years after the world first locked down to limit the spread of the virus, this film serves as collectiv ...
04-03-2025
BBC 4
The Battle For Laikipia
Shot over several years, the Battle for Laikipia charts the relationship between the Samburu people, a nomadic pastoralist community that has always grazed cattle and goats on t ...
25-02-2025
BBC 4
Gaucho Gaucho: Argentina’s Last Ranchers
A Storyville documentary that follows the lives of Argentina’s gauchos (cowboys and cowgirls), who proudly preserve their traditions in a fast-changing world.\n\nThey trav ...
23-02-2025
BBC 4
26.2 To Life: Inside The San Quentin Prison Marathon
Behind the walls of San Quentin State Prison in California, three men sentenced to life for murder undertake running a marathon. Training all year, their route is unconventional ...
11-02-2025
BBC 4
Black Box Diaries
A Storyville documentary that follows 25-year-old journalist Shiori Ito’s courageous investigation of her own sexual assault in 2015 and attempt to prosecute her high-prof ...
06-02-2025
BBC 4
Nelly And Nadine: Ravensbrück, 1944
A Storyville documentary about two women who fall in love in the Ravensbrück concentration camp.
28-01-2025
BBC 4
Your Fat Friend
A Storyville documentary following the rise of Aubrey Gordon from anonymous blogger to best-selling author, whose aim is to promote a paradigm shift in the way we view fatness.
28-01-2025
BBC 4
Stranded! The Andes Plane Crash Survivors
In October 1972, a student rugby team boarded a small plane in Montevideo to fly across the Andes for a long weekend of playing rugby and partying in Chile. But they never reach ...
30-12-2024
BBC 4
Writing With Fire
In a cluttered news landscape dominated by men, a group of women set up India’s only newspaper run entirely by women. All of them are from the lowest caste, Dalit, and are ...
09-03-2022
BBC 4
Sex On Screen
A Storyville documentary that explores the process of creating sex scenes in Hollywood, the toll on those involved in filming them, and the impact such images have on women and ...
28-02-2023
BBC 4
Stranded! The Andes Plane Crash Survivors
In October 1972, a student rugby team boarded a small plane in Montevideo to fly across the Andes for a long weekend of playing rugby and partying in Chile. But they never reach ...
30-12-2024
BBC 4
Whirlybird: Live Above La
Flying high above Los Angeles in a whirling news helicopter, Marika Gerrard and Zoey Tur (then known as Bob) spent the 80s and 90s capturing the city’s most epic breaking ...
18-03-2025
BBC 4
The Covid Queue At Pavilion 6
A humorous and humane snapshot of life in a Covid-19 vaccine centre. Five years after the world first locked down to limit the spread of the virus, this film serves as collectiv ...
04-03-2025
BBC 4
Your Fat Friend
A Storyville documentary following the rise of Aubrey Gordon from anonymous blogger to best-selling author, whose aim is to promote a paradigm shift in the way we view fatness.
28-01-2025
BBC 4
Jailed In America
For director Roger Ross Williams, prison was not a distant possibility when he was growing up, but a daily threat. 'As a young black man in a chaotic environment, I always felt ...
01-07-2020
BBC 4