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Rieke Schmidt is the pastor of the Protestant congregation of Nazareth Church in Munich-Bogenhausen. The unconventional minister is fully absorbed in her job, which is especially hard on her 19-year-old daughter Leonie. She has traveled to Munich from Helsinki during the short semester break to spend some time with her mother, but once again she has her hands full. Especially as she has a new colleague, priest Toni Seidl, whose charm is causing her a lot of turmoil. She also has to take care of the many worries in her parish, especially her best friend Petra Keller, whose daughter Jessica, Rieke's godchild, has leukemia...
Status
Released
Original Language
DE
Frank Keller
Roughly chronological, from 3/96 to 11/96, with a coda in spring of 1997: inside compounds of Aum Shinrikyo, a Buddhist sect led by Shoko Asahara. (Members confessed to a murderous sarin attack in the Tokyo subway in 1995.) We see what they eat, where they sleep, and how they respond to media scrutiny, on-going trials, the shrinking of their fortunes, and the criticism of society. Central focus is placed on Hiroshi Araki, a young man who finds himself elevated to chief spokesman for Aum after its leaders are arrested. Araki faces extreme hostility from the Japanese public, who find it hard to believe that most followers of the cult had no idea of the attacks and even harder to understand why these followers remain devoted to the religion, if not the violence.
