To what lengths will people go to create heaven on earth? This is the quintessential quest of man and the central question the Netflix documentary Wild Wild Country deals with. Originally a Sundance Official Selection, the six-part documentary debuted on Netflix in March 2018.Wild Wild Country traces the origin of the religious cult of Rajneeshism from its somewhat mysterious central figure, guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, in India to the settlement and eventual demise of the Rajneeshpuram commune in Wasco County, Oregon during the 1980s.
Directed by brothers Maclain and Chapman Way, WWC blossoms before the viewer as an impressive production that is detail oriented without being overbearing and in which the protagonists are given the opportunity to share their experience unencumbered and unfiltered before the camera whether their experience was within the commune, the surrounding towns and the greater Wasco County, or law enforcement.
The documentary is strikingly gripping throughout its six episodes, each lasting little over an hour and showing the weird and yet powerful cult of personality that develops around Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, who was considered an enlightened teacher, philosopher, guru and iconoclast who preached an anti-establishment mix bag creed of Eastern mysticism and free "love". For example, social conventions like marriage were held in little to no regard. The guru himself states plainly that he doesn't believe in the institution of marriage.
Therefore, the commune of Rajneeshpuram was a place where free sex was practiced indiscriminately among its members, whether married or not, at any given time. The series shows disturbing footage of the commune's sex rituals which viewers should be strongly cautioned about before viewing, but the documentary does not dwell on the base sexual instincts and practices of Rajneesh's followers. Rather, it focuses on the strong relationship of teacher and disciple, in particular the means by which such relationship is established and cemented.
It is obvious that the element of mind control by geographical isolation on the one hand - life in a "free" commune where at face value all things are held in common - and idolatrous devotion to the infallible enlightened teacher who promises heaven on earth on the other are at play from the outset of the Rajneeshes' story. The viewer is witness to the unquestioned loyalty and total surrender of the Sannyasins, as the members of the cult were also known, to their master guru.
One of the strongest relationships portrayed in the series having to do with the teacher and his disciple is the close up treatment given to Bhagwan's and his First Lieutenant Ma Anand Sheela, a tough as nails, faithful follower who rose through the ranks of the Sannyasins to become Bhagwan's most trusted follower.
By her own admission, Sheela had no trouble laying down her life for her master and there are many instances in the series where that is plainly shown. She comes across as a natural leader, charismatic, committed and trustful, while at the same time allowing us to perceive that there are some dark forces at work in her that border on madness. In fact, the relationship between her and Bhagwan is one permeated by total control to the point where it's not clear who's in charge of the Rajneeshpuram project.
As with every cult, the appearance of a world full of happiness where everyone smiles and has a blissful existence is short-lived, dampened by the increasing tensions that immediately develop between the longtime members of the local community of Antelope and the newly arrived Rajneeshees. Everything that can go wrong goes wrong indeed as the story unfolds and this is not an accidental happening.
In her pursuit for the preservation of the commune, Ma Anand Sheela goes to extreme and illegal lengths to keep an utopia that never was and whose activities eventually catch the attention of law enforcement at the highest levels. Her world comes crashing down in the most dramatic fashion- a federal indictment and warrant for her arrest reaches her in a secluded hideout island in Germany, where she had fled with some members of her inner circle. The same fate happens to the enlightened guru, a man who has a fetish for shiny and expensive things. The Feds come breathing down his neck after his desperate attempt to flee the country and he is stopped in his tracks at an airport in North Carolina.
Wild Wild Country will stay with you long after the journey is over. It is an amazing story of cultic self-deception in which we witness the evil that takes place in the dynamic between deceived and deceiver. It is a lamentable tale of tantric exploitation where the God-given gift of sex is defaced and trampled upon. But in my view, the saddest thing about WWC is how that ultimate human aspiration or, better yet, longing for meaning and purpose in life is manipulated through the interplay of loyalty, betrayal, and ultimately criminal powerplays in the name of religious fanaticism. And while all this is happening we also get to see firsthand the destructive tensions that emerge when that which we term foreign enters our personal space, be it spiritually, emotionally or physically.
In spite of all of this, WWC is not devoid of redeeming moments and the viewer will be relieved to know how powerful these moments are in the story.
The executive producers and directors should be commended and awarded respectively for not editorializing their documentary and allowing the primary actors to tell their story through historical, archival footage and witness testimony even to the present day. Wild Wild Country exposes us to the horrible dangers of a blind trust, faith if you will, in something or someone that in the end cannot deliver the promises made, especially if those promises entail the human establishment of heaven on earth.
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