In 1981, Indian guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh bought 64,229 acres in Wasco County, Oregon. His goal was to build a city—Rajneeshpuram, he'd call it—where his followers, who dressed in red and wore portraits of their leader around their necks, could grow their own food, fight their own fires, and live in utopian bliss, free from outside influence. You probably know where this is headed. Only, you actually don't. And that's why Netflix's new six-part documentary series Wild Wild Country, which comes out on March 16, is set to be so fascinating.
It turned out that Rajneeshpuram was a big problem for the 40 residents of the nearby town, Antelope. A years-long conflict over land use, voter suppression, biological warfare, assassination attempts, deportations, drugs, and sex ensued between Rajneesh's followers and Oregonians.
This forgotten chapter of American history appealed to directors Chapman Way and Maclain Way, who use the documentary's six hours to put this astounding episode in historical context. "We're attracted to telling forgotten stories," the two said in a statement. "The Rajneesh saga rocked the entire state of Oregon in the early 1980s, and also represented one of the largest incursions of a new minority religious movement in our country in decades—and yet no one seemed to remember it."
Wild Wild Country premiered at Sundance in January, and was produced by Jay and Mark Duplass.
Watch the full trailer for Wild Wild Country here:
