With thick bandages wrapped around her head, Chen Guo still lies in a bed at the Beijing Jishuitan Hospital. She is one of four survivors of a tragedy that happened on January 23 last year, when seven members of the Falun Gong cult set themselves on fire in the Chinese capital's Tian'anmen Square.

Doctors have announced that 19-year-old Chen can no longer play the pipa, an ancient Chinese plucked instrument, because her fingers have been too badly burned by the fire. Her aspiration to become a music teacher may remain merely a dream for years to come.

A camera crew visited Chen early this year and the teenager's tears of regret and sorrow open the new documentary "Abyss - The Nature of Cults."

The film was made by the Beijing Science and Education Film Studio and will be released in cinemas nationwide.

At the 80-minute-long film's premiere in Beijing last week, director Mo Jiao said: "It is the first Chinese popular science documentary about cults and the longest one of this type in the world."

The crew selected about 10 notorious cults in the world, such as Japan's Aum Shinrikyo (Supreme Truth) doomsday cult, the People's Temple cult of the United States preacher Jim Jones, and China's Falun Gong cult, to examine the origins and characteristic of cults and the harm they do to individuals and society as a whole.

"From a scientific angle, we try to explain why people join cults and how they are controlled mentally - the two questions that people concern the most," Mo said.

Film critics have worried that the quality of Chinese science documentaries has been declining in recent years because of funding shortages and competition from Chinese and foreign commercial films.

But Mo said he believes that this film will be a big surprise and he also has confidence that it will make a profit.

With investment of more than 3 million yuan (US$362,000), it took the crew about 15 months to gather research material, travel and interview victims and Falun Gong cult members in eight provinces or municipalities.

Mo said every member of his crew was shocked by the tragedies experienced by the cult practitioners and their victimized families.

Chinese government statistics show that more than 1,700 people have died because of the Falun Gong.

The film studio also invited famous scientists to act as consultants, such as physicist He Zuoxiu from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Professor Pan Jiazheng from the Chinese Academy of Engineering.

Ding Jie, a film critic from China Art Weekly, said it was one of the best science documentaries she had ever watched.

"I am sure that, after you watch the film, your mind will become clearer about the reasons why people want to join cults and how they harm society and individuals," she said.

Physicist He Zuoxiu said the film does not merely repeat existing TV documentaries or old stories on the same subject but is a brand-new and vivid production.

He suggested at the premiere that English subtitles should be prepared for the film because the problem of cults is a world concern. He said he hoped the film could be shown outside China to let more people know the truth about the Falun Gong cult and the harm it does.

(China Daily August 22, 2002)