The Family

Jul 30, 2016

1h 38m

★ 7.7

Inside one of Australia's most notorious cults

Overview

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.

Genres

Documentary

Production Companies

Dogwoof

Big Stories

Film Victoria

Screen Australia

BBC

The Family Trailers

Cast

Detective Lex De Man (young)

Jordan Fraser-Trumble

Herself (archive footage)

Anne Hamilton-Byrne

Himself (archive footage)

Bill Hamilton-Byrne

Himself (interview)

Lex De Man

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0.0

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No Image Available

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0.0

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0.0

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No Image Available

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The Family

Overview

Genres

Production Companies

The Family Trailers