Filmmaker Born Into a Sex Cult Tells His Story in New Documentary

In 1979, Paul-Julien Robert was born into a commune in Austria, in which free love and communal property and childcare were encouraged, but family relationships were not allowed. In 1991, the commune fell apart after its leader Otto Mühl was convicted of child molestation.

Roberts turned the story of his childhood, in which he was taught to believe that love was bad, into an award-winning documentary, My Fathers, My Mother, and Me, using hours of archival footage that survived the dissolution of the cult.

To make the film, Paul-Julien was able to mine the vast videotape library that the commune had amassed to document life there – many of its members believed they were conducting a grand social experiment, and wanted to record it for posterity.