Sonnenstadt

Summary

The documentary follows the residents of a remote village in the Siberian taiga. They have all come to this place to follow a man who calls himself “Wissarion” and believes himself to be the reincarnation of Jesus Christ. “Wissarion,” whose real name is Sergei Torop and who was a traffic police officer in his previous life, founded the “Church of the Last Testament” in the 1990s and gathered around 5,000 followers, all in search of meaning and community. Between 2013 and 2022, director Kristina Shtubert traveled to the religious community five times and documented the lives of the people who have settled there. From work around the house and in the harsh Siberian fields to children playing in the forest, the film captures the lives of the believers and those who live there but do not believe in “Wissarion,” and raises questions about solidarity and belonging.