The cult

I once wanted to make a documentary and realized that I couldn’t... people didn’t want to tell stories on camera... when I was 16 I got into a sect in Kharkov, this project is very personal and a test look at the past and rethink. I collected the photographs that I have left and explore the theme of people's adaptation after life in a sect.

In the sect, each of us had to compose a poem and write a report on the good deeds we did.

All the girls had short haircuts and could not wear skirts or dresses.

There were girls and boys in the sect and relationships were controlled by the sect leader.

It was difficult to leave the sect. The first month you were chased, but if a person was able to hide and stay out of contact with the sect, then the person was able to leave the sect

I was 16 years old I was in school. I was looking for a summer job to earn some money and found myself in a cult.

I was ashamed to talk about my past for more than 10 years. I could not create a relationship until I decided that I was not afraid to tell about the cult and only then I met a girl. My girlfriend doesn't understand why I am so smart was a member of a cult. But I am not afraid to discuss my past with my girlfriend and that is the main thing.

I communicate with former cult members. One woman bought 15 bags of secondhand clothes to teach me how to dress "nicely". One man dreams of meeting the woman the cult leader separated him from. One woman had a cult abortion and cannot have children. One woman's parents are afraid to give her a house so she doesn't suddenly give it to a new cult. But the topic that is very difficult to talk about is sexual abuse. Former participants willingly talk about others, but not about themselves

All of them do not want to talk openly and communicate only in the closed society of former members of the same sect.

So I decided to tell the story