Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I had never heard of Gloriavale before I watched this documentary. This treatment made the community seem attractive in some ways -- never having to worry about where your next meal would come from, living in beautiful surroundings, having the support of a large, close-knit (and closely-related) community. But as I watched I began to have questions. Surely not everyone in the community "fits in"; there must have been people who've left. So I started to do my research, and here's what I learned: - A founder of the community served time in prison for sexual abuse. - Fathers get away with child abuse (a child - one with down's syndrome, no less, choked to death on a piece of meat while shut up, isolated for disciplinary reasons, in a room from which door handles had been removed). - When someone does leave, their family members who are still inside suffer abuse. - Leaving is difficult for someone who grows up inside the community, because they've never learned how to fend for themselves. - Those who do manage to get out are cut off from family who are still inside. They suffer from massive guilt and psychological trauma. - The Gloriavale community has a lot in common with work camps in Cambodia under Pol Pot (minus the extreme physical violence in the Cambodian "killing fields").