There is a cult with thousands of members who just seem a little weird. You’ll also find plenty of wild elements in this Netflix documentary. This documentary includes many views and wild scenes. There are a lot of hard-to-explain events followed by a lot of suspense.
Antelope is a small town of 46 people located in the deep, conservative state of Oregon, in the middle of nowhere. In such a remote region, city dwellers are very attached to the feeling of belonging. They are filled with self-confidence in their region.
A long period of tranquility that ended abruptly when an Indian guru named Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh announced his arrival, in a revolutionary religious sect. The “official sect” has won arms race competitions with military precision. His elite executive assistant purchased a sprawling 25,000 hectare ranch which was landscaped and rapidly urbanized into a town called ‘Rajneeshpur’.
A perfect place to sit and reflect on life, business and, yes, depression… Maybe, but a very profitable place if the accounts are to be believed. Rochar Hasan invited Ricky Gervais to his events in Pune, India, in what he says is his way of “giving people something spiritual without breaking their wallets.” Religion has been too much of a business opportunity, so it’s time for “silence meditation”.
No matter. For Westerners, the Iwi chiefs are seen as a new spiritual “promised land” by a couple and their followers. The so-called Promised Land is home to 6,000 people and thousands of animals, and includes a supermarket, bank, pizzeria, and even its own heavily armed guard dressed in red.
Social movements often elicit strong reactions from opponents. Rajneeshpuram, a new town in Oregon, presents a particularly strong political, economic and religious contrast. Residents of neighboring Antelope County have reacted with resistance to the proposed takeover of the city. Rajneeshpuram is full of hippies who have plagued the community. The conflict intensifies with the arrival of large numbers of immigrants in the region. Ma Anand Sheela, the führer of power who played an essential role in the development and establishment of the commune, will indeed be suspected of being the cause of salmonella poisoning in more than 750 people.
According to Netflix, the film and sordid TV show “Wild Wild Country” was written and directed by filmmakers Jay and Mark Duplass – best known for their bizarre stealth parody movie “Togetherness.” Brian Wells was a bank robber pizza delivery man in a purse with a bomb strapped around his neck, which happened in San Luis Obispo, California in 2003.
Comprised of six episodes, Wild Wild Country is a brilliant investigative documentary that, over more than four years, has preserved over 300 hours of this unexpected case that has yielded wonderful testimonies and even first-hand reports from people with experienced the movement. Because the documentary only took place during this unique moment, it allowed several cameras to walk around the ranch to collect a lot of preliminary data, in particular to allow duly legal journalists, who were authorized to check it.
Although today’s public memory is made up of stories told by witnesses and actors involved at the time, the authors confront these documentary archival images with laser-like logic, to achieve a staggering result. There are a few legit performances on Netflix, like “Insight for Life,” an excellent documentary.