What makes thousands of people burn all bridges to their former lives and venture into the wild Siberian taiga in the footsteps of Visarion – a former Soviet policeman who has proclaimed himself the new Jesus? In extreme conditions that remind an experiment in survival, they are building the ‘’New Jerusalem’’ – a settlement they believe is destined to become the cradle of the new civilisation after the approaching apocalypse.

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DIRECTORS STATEMENT

They are people who have trusted the word of a former militiaman from the Russian town of Minusinsk, that spread out on 18th August 1991. With his message, 29 year-old Sergey Torop declared himself a new Jesus. They are people who have accepted the Teacher Visarion Testament as an only guide, and have come to serve him from all parts of the former USSR, as well as Bulgaria, Germany, Cuba… They are people with a different time system: they count time starting at the birth of their Teacher, and so according to this calendar it is the 42th year.  

"To overcome egotism, we need to change human cells," believe some of the most radical of them. "There are no laws, dogma, or directions, there are only guidance by Teacher ", so the system is explained by others. They all have come together to be near Teacher and to create a cradle of the new world – a city founded on their belief, in Siberian taiga, which will be the basis of the new civilisation after the apocalypse.

They have deliberately abandoned their previous life, and changed radically. A Utopian Sun City has been built beneath one of the biggest ozone holes in the atmosphere, and above an underground lode of heavy metal.

With ever increasing frequency, pilgrims, travellers, and simply curious people come to see them from all around the world. They live within a system of natural farming and regularly update their complex web sites. They live in area with a radius of about 300 km from their "faith centre", and according to the official statistics of the Russian authorities, their number is approaching 4,500.

They – the brothers and sisters of Visarions Last Testament congregation – are searching for the inconceivable.

The Followers.