The Cult Next Door (2017)

• 61%
• 2017
• Documentary
• Vanessa Engle
• Aravindan Balakrishnan
• Chanda Balakrishnan
• Yvonne Hall

Acclaimed documentary filmmaker Vanessa Engle tells one of the most bizarre and extraordinary stories to occur in London in recent years. In 2013, three women emerged from a small flat in the Brixton area of South London after decades of captivity. The women had been members of a strange cult that started as a left-wing political group in the 1970s. A charismatic young student of Indian origin, Aravindan Balakrishnan, believed in an international communist revolution and created a tiny political sect that followed the teachings of Chinese leader Chairman Mao - and attracted a largely female membership. However, as time went on this left-wing collective evolved into a truly bizarre pseudo-religious cult worshipping Balakrishnan as a god and using an unhinged and brutal regime of terror, brainwashing, threats and violence to ensure that its members were too terrified to leave. Engle interviews two former members, Aisha Wahab, a 72-year-old Malaysian woman who was part of Balakrishnan's group for 40 years and Katy Morgan-Davies, Balakrishnan's daughter, who was born and raised in captivity as part of a weird social experiment.