Communekind (2004)

text

(aka Child of the Commune)

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 (English, French subtitles)

released

2004

length

50 min

credits

director

Maroesja Perizonius

written by

Maroesja Perizonius

Cinematography

Paul Cohen

Alfred Broer

Composer

Fons Merkies

Producer

Leontine Petit

Joost De Vries

Editing

Erik Disselhoff

Sound

Martijn Van Haalen

Bert Van Den Dungen

production companies

Lemming Film

commissioned by the Nederlandse Christelijke Radio-Vereniging (NCRV)

co-produced by YLE Teema, Finland

distributor

Deckert Distribution

see also

Child of the Commune in the IMDB

on Lemming Film

on Mubi

Preview on Youtube

Docs Online (subscription only)