K-DOCS

Synopsis

Born in a Busan shantytown, the church grew into an empire spanning a hundred countries, built on mass weddings and a global anti-communist network. When the founder died, the empire began to shake — and a second-generation's bullet struck down Japan's former prime minister. A dissolution order in Japan, the matriarch's arrest in Korea: the empire is collapsing in three countries at once. Through the voices of those who were born and lived inside, this is the fall of an empire — filmed as it happens.

Director's Statement

This project began with an investigative series for Korean television — and a realization: no single country's perspective can hold this story. For half a century, presidents and prime ministers shook hands with this religion. Yet no one listened to the people born inside its myth. We return to seventy years of history through their eyes, asking a question no headline ever answered: what is it like to be born inside a myth? What moved so many hearts — and what remains after faith became institution, capital, and power? With dissolution and trials underway, now is the last moment to record.