Based on a true story.
Yet another glimpse inside the world of religious faith. This time Jehovah’s Witnesses. But they are all the same when push comes to shove. It’s a world in which what you believe pales next to the fact that you believe in whatever that might happen to be. It’s a world of ritual and necessity. But, again, what you do is basically interchangable in all faiths. Why? Because what matters most is that you recognize the necessity to do particular things over and over and over again. Believing that if you do you are granted eternal life.
And the only way you can deprogram minds like these is to somehow get them to understand this. But usually [emotionally and psychologically] there is simply too much at stake. Especially with minds that have been brainwashed [indoctrinated] for years and years as children.
And these folks are the worst because they believe that unless you accept their faith and their faith alone your soul is lost.
Beware “the elders”.
This shunning bullshit is no joke. It rips families, friends, lovers to shreds. These people genuinely love each other. But they love – or fear – God more.
Poor Thea.
trailer:
youtu.be/fP0grwoiF-w
IMDb
In the last scene, the girl in the train who looks up and smiles at Sara is the “real life-Sara”. Her name is Tabita, and the director got the inspiration for the film from reading her story in a national Danish newspaper in 2006. While the story is fictionalized in places it is mostly true to Tabita’s story. The titles at the end of the film about Sara’s future accurately reflect Tabita’s life.
WORLDS APART [To Verdener] 2008
Written and directed by Niels Arden Oplev
[b]Father: I’ve done something terribly wrong.
Sara: What have you done?
Father: Now it’s all falling apart.
Sara: But what have you done?
Father: I was too weak. I was tempted.
…
Elizabeth: Dad did something very wrong.
Sara: Yes. But it’s worse that Mom won’t forgive him even though he repents.
…
Thea: There are three kinds of young Witnesses, you know. The 1s break all the rules. The 2s try out stuff without talking about it much.
Sara: That’s you.
Thea: And the 3s are the nerds. They attend all the meetings and sit at home with their parents and never do anything wrong.
Sara: That’s me.
Thea: Soon to become a 2.
…
Teis: When is the last time you saw your brother?
Sara: A year ago.
Teis: The rest of your family don’t see him either?
Sara: No.
Teis: Why not? Why not?
Sara: It’s none of your business, is it?
Teis: No, I guess not.
Sara: He didn’t behave correctly. He read the wrong book.
Teis: Okay. And you really didn’t like that book? I’d sure like to read it.
Sara: He’s expelled. That’s why.
Teis: Expelled from what?
Sara: We’re Jehovah’s Witnesses.
Teis: You’re kidding me…
…
Teis: Aren’t you the ones who believe in all that Doomsday crap?
Sara: It’s called Armageddon and it’s not Doomsday but a transition to a new world.
Teis: Where everyone but you dies, right?
Sara: Yes.
Teis: So I’m going to die? [points to a woman] Is she going to die?
Sara: Unless she accepts Jehovah as the one true God, yes, she is.
Teis [pointing to another woman]: What about her?
Sara: Stop it.
Teis [pointing to a baby in a stroller]: Is that child going to die? Say the parents don’t accept your truth and the child is too young to understand, it’s still doomed?
…
Teis: So sex is a no-no. What else?
Sara: You don’t want to hear.
Teis: I’m serious.
Sara: You can’t join the army, you can’t vote, you can’t smoke or celebrate Christmas and birthdays. You can’t contradict the elders. But sex is the worst thing.
…
Teis: It’s so weird. You actually believe in God?
Sara: It’s weirder not to believe.
…
Teis: So if the doctor can only save you by giving you blood, you still say no? Even if you know you may die?
Sara: Yes, if your faith is strong. Jehovah says you should not take the blood of others.
…
The elder [after telling Sara she must break up with Teis]: I know you want to be God’s friend. You know what you must do in return. Right?
Sara [in tears]: Can’t you help me. Please?
The elder: You must trust in Jehovah. Only by trusting in Jehovah can you avoid Satan’s trials.
Sara: Isn’t there some way I can still see him. As a friend?[/b]
Nope.
[b]Teis: Don’t let them walk all over you and make you break up with me so you can hand out phamphlets and tell people they’re better off dead!
…
Jette [Teis’s mother]: Teis told us about your faith.
Teis: Jette and Vagn don’t believe in anything.
Jette: I have to say, we’re worried about how your being in a sect will affect Teis.
Vagn: We’ve been over that Jette.
Sara: Why do you call it a sect?
Jette: Well, that is what I’d call a closed group of uneducated people who believe in the end of the world and that they’re the only ones who’ll survive it.
Sara: We don’t think you need to be educated to be happy. We just try to bring people closer to God. That’s the only road to truth.
Jette [sarcastically]: The truth. Do you think there is only one truth, Sara? Jehovah’s Witnesses have proclaimed the end is near countless times with dates they get out of the blue. That’s what I call brainwashing. Do you know what that is? It’s when you tell children the same lie over and over again. You think so too, Vagn.[/b]
Here’s the problem though: By this time you like Sara a lot and tend to see Lette as the arrogant intellectual snob.
But not for long.
Teis: I don’t agree with the way my mother put it, but she’s right. Somewhere deep inside, you know she is.
Sara: I thought you were approaching us. I thought you wanted to help me.
Teis: I know how much is at stake for you but I just can’t. I can’t believe in it.
Sara: But we slept with each other.
Teis: I slept with you because I wanted to and because you wanted to. Stay here. Don’t go.
But she does.
But not for long.
[b]Mother: You’re walking on a razor’s edge.
Sara: I know.
…
Sara [to Elizabeth]: It’s not me who says I can’t be with him as well as with you.
Elizabeth: You lied to us.
…
The Elder: Sara, you know that fornicators offend the purity of Jehovah. If you choose carnal lust, you choose the lonliness of the soul. If you choose desire instead of Jehovah, you choose eternal death.
…
Father: Sara, I can’t see you anymore.
Sara: What do you mean? Sure you can. Why can’t you?
Father: You live here with your boyfriend.
Sara: My address is with Mom.
Father: But you live here.
Sara: Didn’t you hear me? My address is at Mom’s.
Father: God sees all.
Sara: In that case, He sees you choosing to believe me becasue you love me.
Father: Jehovah is truth, not a personal emotion.
Sara: So you want to stop seeing me?
Father: No, that’s what you want, Sara. This is your choice and yours alone. Jehovah sees you make that choice.
Sara: Don’t hide behind Jehovah. This is your choice.
…
Sara: So, this is goodbye?
Father: Yes, I suppose so.
Sara: Goodbye then.
Father: Goodbye, Sara.
…
Jonas: I can’t go on. I can’t stand being outside the church. It’s just too hard. I want to repent. If you do too, we can all be together again.
Sara: I’m sorry, Jonas. But I can’t.
…
Sara: Do you love me?
Father: How can you even ask? Of course I do.
Sara: Do you love God more than me?
Father: Yes.
Sara: Why?
Father: He created me. He is my Heavenly Father and will give me eternal life.
Sara: Know what, Dad? I think that’s very selfish of you.
Father. You could come back. Repent and come back so we can be a real family again.
Sara: Goodbye Dad.
…
Sara [voiceover]: Jehovah God. This is the last time we talk because I don’t believe in you anymore.
…
Title card: Sara doesn’t see her father and younger siblings anymore. She lives in Copenhagen where she’s studying to become a teacher.[/b]