Real Life: Supreme Horror EntityA road leading to nowhere, snow coat on tall mountains, dusk rouge, buffer of clouds within a handycam's focal point and a collection of few houses, some of them one storied some duplex. A young face appears, a little curious, a little intimidated and a little courageous. "There is no truck. I guess mom is not home. Ok, lets go", the young face and his friend jump out of the car and enter a house. A young girl, the boy's sister, runs out of the house. The three slam the doors of the car. "Hurry, go go go." Hillary, one of the hundreds of kids belonging to Foundamentalist Latter Day Saints' (FLDS) cult, has decided to quit her life in Colorado City, Arizona. Tired of FLDS' self-proclaimed prophet Warren Jeffs' tyrannical reign over the 'CRICK' and its habitants Hillary joins the underground clan of exiles. All termed as Sons of Perdition by prophet and his loyal followers. She finds refuge with her brother, Joe, her cousins, Sam and Bruce and an exile helper in a town few tens of miles away from the CRICK. Her father finds the exile refuge within 24 hours to take her back.
Sons of Perdition is a documentary about lives of three exiles who are born in the FLDS cult that believes in polygamy. The primary members, MEN, leaglly marry one wife and other wives are termed as soul companions. The men share their friends' daughters, wives's sisters and their daughters and cousins and evrything that can give birth. Only to be shared later again. All the kids are home schooled about christianity's version entirely from the prophet's point of view. They do manual labor even before they hit puberty. Whoever is an open thinker and does not 'OBEY' the prophet becomes outcast and termed a Son of Perdition. The three exiles under the focus start a journey whose every milestone has its own dirt, grass, heat, rain and dew. Every milestone different from the other.
For these SONS everything they experience after that jump out of the house is for the first time. Right from the experience out of home sewn clothes, slurp of mango soda, hair color and mohawk, Christian church visit, skateborad jump, pool dive, cigerette puff, scream on the roller coaster to 'HOME RUN', everything brings a special meaning and a new memory. A memory that they try and overwrite over horrid moments of past. The moments to see their mothers sacrificing their physical and mental dignity to obey their husbands. The moments where the SONS might see their underage sisters dragged to their future husbands, possibly older than their grandfathers. Moments that are unforgettable. Moments that led them to spread their wings and fly away from that nest.
But how good a wing is if it carries you only to a point where you are left with no choice but to wait paitiently to make it stronger. By means of education in high school and possibly college, a social security number, a work experience, monetary and mental savings the exiles try and make their wings strong enough to carry not just themselves but their family members under torment. A family that they long for. Because buried under those horrid memories are moments of love, compassion and happiness. In the forms of pictures with siblings, choirs with cousins on a CD, memories of coming home from work to spend time with family, maybe holding hand of the mother and a deep seeded feeling for a tiny spark of love for father too. A young soul is a young soul. Sometimes that tiny spark triumphs over a piled up despise.
Sure this documentary brings frames of shock. A young girl begging to cops to take her away from her mother, boys with ploughs, pictures of 'face-to-face' involving underaged. But there are no graphic counterparts. But almost every frame brings a punch in the gut that does not fade before the next one. The documentary had every single reason to make victim portrayal as the punchline. But it does not. Rather it is the quest of those three sons to build stronger wings to grab their moms and sisters and fly far away as a primal instinct of their survival. This instinct, instead of violent means of revenge, becomes the ultimate outcome. Being victims of one of the cruelest horrors of real life all three Sons of Perdition embrace life for the betterment of it.
Trailer: Click Here
