Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/578674
T he Mormon Church won acceptability in this country when it swore off polygamy, but not all Mormon men were happy with that decision. How did the women feel? It didn't matter, because they had no rights. Prophet's Prey, a haunting documentary based on the book by Sam Brower, focuses on the disgruntled men, led by Rulon Jeffs, who defected to form FLDS (Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints). Their primary motivation was polygamy, which they claimed was fundamental to their faith. Jeffs himself took more than 50 wives and fathered scores of children. Some years later, with Rulon gone under suspicious circumstances, his son Warren tyrannically rules at least three remote FLDS communities, and possibly another in Mexico. Shut off from the "evil infl uences" of worldly media, the men rule the women and children, but Jeffs rules the men, and he is unchecked. Child molestation is rampant, and the molested are told they'll be turning their backs on God if they resist. Anyone wanting to leave—and most are too brainwashed to consider it—has a tough time. Members run multimillion- dollar businesses but turn every penny over to Jeffs. And when parents leave, they're forced to leave their children behind. After at stint on the 10 Most Wanted list, Jeffs is now behind bars, where prison monitoring footage shows him to be self-absorbed and off-balance, but if he's crazy he's crazy like a fox. As Berg's fi lm clearly shows, he continues to exert autocratic control and leave a trail of damaged lives. When we hear Jeffs' creepy hypnotic voice and multiple fi rst-person accounts from investigators, defectors and law enforcement, and when the camera shows us remote towns where Amish-clad women run from outsiders' eyes amidst a hostile, threatening atmosphere, the picture that emerges is terrifying. Authorities are concerned about an eventual Jonestown scenario and their fear is not unfounded; Jeffs is no less a monster than was Jim Jones. FLDS numbers about 10,000 to this day. Add inbreeding to their other mental ills and as Berg shows us with stark, incisive footage, what emerges is not a pretty picture. —Abigail Lewis FILM Prophet's Prey Written and Directed by Amy Berg SHOWTIME PRESENTS AN IMAGINE ENTERTAINMENT PRODUCTION IN ASSOCIATION WITH DISARMING FILMS AND ARTEMIS RISING FILMS PROPHET'S PREY NARRATED BY NICK CAVE MUSIC BY NICK CAVE & WARREN ELLIS CINEMATOGRAPHY BY PETER DONAHUE EDITED BY BRENDAN WALSH SCOTT STEVENSON PRODUCERS AMY BERG SAM BROWER KATHERINE LEBLOND BASED ON THE BOOK PROPHET'S PREY BY SAM BROWER EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS DUSTIN LANCE BLACK SHANNON COSTELLO ANNA CULP GERALYN DREYFOUS BRIAN GRAZER ERICA HUGGINS RON HOWARD JON KRAKAUER REGINA SCULLY WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY AMY BERG Prophet's PRE Y A S H O W T I M E ® O R I G I N A L D O C U M E N T A R Y B Y T H E D I S G R A C E O F G O D … T H E S H O C K I N G I N S I D E S T O RY O F C U LT L E A D E R WA R R E N J E F F S A N D T H E F L D S C H U R C H "Prophet's Prey" ©2015 Showtime Networks Inc. All rights reserved. art & soul october/november 2015 33