The Largest Family in the World
Germany | 2014 | Documentary | 45 min
How does the largest family in the world live, in which 178 men, women and children have to be taken care of every day? In which rice is eaten by the hundredweight, and laundry done by the mountain? And who is the only man in the world married to 39 women? In the far northeast of India, in the mountainous state of Mizoram, we visit the patriarch of the world’s biggest family: Ziona Chana, age 70. He is the leader of a unique Christian sect and is considered an illuminator for hundreds of followers in his home village of Baktwang. Ziona, chieftain of “Chuantar lal Ruat” – the new generation – sees it as his duty to produce numerous offspring in order to enlarge his community. Polygamy for religious reasons – but Christian ones?
The village is divided in two. On one side are those who believe in Ziona and on the other, those who believe in God. The pastor of the Presbyterian congregation cannot take the sect seriously as Christian brothers of faith. Nevertheless: they are among the region’s best achievers. The well-oiled family machine feeds more than just 39 wives, 98 children and grandchildren, 18 daughters-in-law and 23 sons-in-law, but also offers work and income for the other villagers.
Illiterate sect leader Ziona is at once preacher, carpenter, businessman and visionary. He wants to use his popularity as head of the largest family in the world to lay the foundations for tourism in remote, impoverished Baktwang. Expansion is the aim, but so is care. He married some of his 39 wives in order to rescue them from a fate of poverty and suffering – and the wives wanted this husband whom they would have to share with a growing number of others. Nobody complains. If any wife should grow discontent, she is free to leave. Only her children have to stay behind.
The Largest Family in the World allows a one-of-a-kind insight into the strictly organized everyday life of an astonishing community that is impossible to define.
Director: Marita Neher
Writer: Marita Neher
Cinematographer: Ralf Ilgenfritz
Editor: Jana Teuchert
Sound: Sashikanth Samal
Commissioning editor: Linde Dehner
Producer: Andrea Ufer
Channel: ZDF/arte
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