The Cult That Stole Children: Inside the Family (2016)
The Family
Inside one of Australia's most notorious cults
98 min
Anne Hamilton-Byrne was beautiful, charismatic and delusional. She was also incredibly dangerous. Convinced she was the reincarnation of Jesus Christ, Hamilton-Byrne headed an apocalyptic sect called The Family, which was prominent in Melbourne from the 1960s through to the 1990s. With her husband Bill, she acquired numerous children – some through adoption scams, some born to cult members – and raised them as her own. Isolated from the outside world, the children were dressed in matching outfits, had identical dyed blonde hair, and were allegedly beaten, starved and injected with LSD. Taught that Hamilton-Byrne was both their mother and the messiah, the children were eventually rescued during a police raid in 1987, but their trauma had only just begun.
- Release date
- July 30, 2016
- Country of origin
- United States
- Music
- Amanda Brown
Trailer
Cast
- Sung Yun Cho as D.A. Harris
- Lex de Man as Self
- Jordan Fraser-Trumble as Detective Lex De Man
- Anne Hamilton-Byrne as Self
Crew
- Rosie Jones · Director
- Rosie Jones · Writer
- Anna Grieve · Producer
- Amanda Brown · Composer
- Jaems Grant · Cinematographer
- Jane Usher · Editor