How does the largest family in the world live, in which 178 women, men and children have to be cared for every day? Where tons of rice is eaten every day and mountains of laundry are washed? And who is the man who is the only one in the world to be married to 39 women? In the far northeast of India, in the mountainous state of Mizoram, we visit the head of the largest family in the world: Ziona Chana, 70 years old. He is the leader of a Christian sect that is unique in the world and is considered an enlightened person by hundreds of followers in his home village of Baktwang. Ziona, the head of “Chuantar lal Ruat” – the new generation – sees it as his duty to produce a particularly large number of offspring in order to expand his community. Polygamy for religious reasons. But from Christian ones?

The village is divided into two. On the one hand you believe in Ziona and on the other hand in God. The pastor of the Presbyterian congregation cannot take the sect seriously as fellow Christian believers. Nevertheless, you are one of the region’s rising stars. The well-oiled family machine not only feeds 39 women, 98 children and grandchildren, 18 daughters-in-law and 23 sons-in-law every day, but also provides work and income for other villagers.

Illiterate and cult leader Ziona is at the same time a preacher, carpenter, businessman and visionary. He wants to use his popularity as head of the largest family in the world and even lay the foundation for tourism in the remote and poor Baktwang. It’s about expansion, but also about supply. He married some of his 39 wives to save them from a fate of poverty and misery – and the women wanted this husband, whom they would have to share with a growing number of others. Nobody complains. But if a woman no longer likes it, she can leave. She just has to leave her children there.

The largest family in the world allows a unique insight into the strictly organized everyday life of an amazing community that is not easy to categorize.

Director: Marita Neher
Script: Marita Neher
Camera: Ralf Ilgenfritz
Editing: Jana Teuchert
Sound: Linde Dehner
Production: Andrea Ufer
Station: ZDF/arte