Communekind (2004)

text

Communekind is an award winning and very personal documentary by acclaimed director Maroesja Perizonius (32) about her personal experiences as a child in the commune of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. As a six-year old girl, Maroesja followed her mother and became a Sannyasin. Through unique historic footage and interviews with commune members, director Maroesja Perizonius succeeds to reconstruct her life as a child in a commune.

At its peak, the Bhagwan movement had about 200,000 members and 600 centers around the world. The movement was targeted by many anti-cult groups as an evil, mind control cult. But was it? In the eighties when the movement gained momentum many members choose for a secluded life in a commune. Naturally their Children had to follow. This documentary is about one such child and her mother. The film centers around the question - did the mother act responsible by bringing her daughter into the commune? And would she have choosen differently in light of what she knows now?

Awarded with the prize for the Best Debute on the Dutch Film Festival 2005 and the Best of NCRV Dokument in 2006.
The film was sold to ten countries and shown on the following film festivals:

• IDFA 2004
• DOK Leipzig 2005
• MediMed 2005
• Dutch FF Utrecht 2005
• Thessaloniki IDF 2006

language

Dutch

released

2004

length

50 min

credits

director

Maroesja Perizonius

written by

Maroesja Perizonius

production companies

Lemming Film

Nederlandse Christelijke Radio-Vereniging (NCRV)

see also

Child of the Commune in the IMDB