HOLY SMOKE

A dual debut for filmmaker Campion and her sister Anna, who offer an account of a very twisted love/hate affair that transpires between a kidnaped cult member and her deprogrammer. “Exit counselors,” something of a cross between psychotherapists and secret agents, specialize in forcibly removing people from cults and reorienting them to the real world. P.J. Waters is one of the best of the breed. A New Yorker, P.J. is called halfway across the globe to Australia to assist in the case of Ruth Baron, a bright girl from New South Wales who decided to take a year off from her university studies to travel through India with some friends and ended up joining a cult headed by the charlatan guru Chidaatma Baba. Baba’s brand of asceticism has a Hindu scent but is basically his own concoction, revolving in large part on unthinking subservience to him. By the time Ruth’s family finds out where she’s ended up, she’s set to be “initiated” in two weeks. With no time to be lost, Ruth’s mother and brother manage to kidnap her and bring her home to Australia, but it’s up to P.J. to convince her not to return—or to kill herself. This he accomplishes through intensive interrogations conducted in a safe house over a period of days leading to weeks. As usual, P.J. succeeds, but this time something out of the ordinary happens: he and Ruth develop an erotic obsession with each other. P.J. is a married man, Ruth is barely in her 20’s. An affair would only harm her and destroy him—or would it? Two people who have dedicated most of their lives to a search for meaning are not likely to be constrained by conventions, but they cannot be exempt from them either. Can they help each other out? The premise and plot are very old-hat, but the Campion sisters” narration is fresh and deft enough to breathe life into them: Worth a look.