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They seek advice from an Australian expert who advises Ruth‘s mother to go to India to
entice her daughter home with a story that Ruth‘s father had a major stroke. She goes, and
here is where the movie begins to get silly, punning on stereotypes about Indian culture,
the magic, hypnotic power of a guru, and the clueless parents of a cult member. The
mother, like Edith Bunker on an alien planet, goes it alone in chaotic New Delhi. She visits
her daughter who now has a new Hindu name. The stroke story doesn‘t work with Ruth,
who has more important things on her mind, like worshiping Baba in person.
The mother agrees to stay a while to visit the ashram, but first she must bathe and wash
her hair. No one can be in Baba‘s presence smelling of perfume, shampoo, or deodorant.
Baba is based partly on a notorious guru, now dead, who was known to have serious
allergies and could not tolerate chemical odors. The mother notices she has to endure a
sniff test at the gate, and this startles her. ―I do not want to be treated like a dog.‖ She
turns in disgust, runs toward her hotel, but on the way has an asthma attack and cannot
breath. A crowd of Indians causes her to panic even more as they grope stupidly to help
her. In one the funnier scenes, they carry and dump mom into a cab. Ruth decides to escort
her fragile mother home to Sydney.
When P.J. Waters appears, my cousin laughed as she remembered me in a similar outfit
when I arrived once in Sydney. My cousin asks, ―Is that supposed to be you?‖ Who knows --
Campion researched the stories of many people, deprogrammers and deprogrammees, to
create her satirical, composite characters and scenes --of that much I am aware. My first
initials are ―J. P‖…. nah, a mere ego projection. Waters is a late middle-aged American who
does not mind boasting about his ―190‖ successful cases and low rate of recidivism. He dyes
his longish hair black, sports a mustache, soul patch, and arrives in Sydney dressed in a
standard black sport coat, jeans, black shirt, black cowboy boots and mirror sunglasses --
his basic costume through half the movie.
In a word, Waters is sleazy. He is also very smooth and cocky, a seasoned veteran of
intervention, already living his next challenge, quickly evaluating his task, being decisive.
Waters is shocked to discover from his colleague, the local cult expert, that his scheduled
assistant was not available. With no good alternative, Waters ponders going it alone with
inexperienced family and hired guards. He spells out his ―three day‖ process that begins
with isolating the cult member, then gaining rapport, and next breaking down devotion to
the group or guru with skillful dialog and video tapes. I recognize a parody of what many
exit counselors say, but I also recognize an older deprogramming model shaping up,
complete with a dramatic kidnapping scene.
The central theme is set: the deprogrammer and the cult member are to meet one on one
in a battle of wills and skills. After Ruth arrives at an outback ―halfway house‖ [in actual
cases, this would be called a ―safe house‖] to meet her ailing father, she realizes soon
enough he is not sick. Relatives and hired men surround her, including her gay brother (who
shows up in several scenes with his lover) to convince her to meet with Waters for three
days. In her frustration, she lashes out at her father, scooping his toupee off his head.
Surrounded by her weird bunch of captives, seeing no way out, she agrees to stay ―for
three days.‖
Alone in the ―halfway house,‖ a remote cabin located at Wee Waa [a real place in New
South Wales] with his client, Waters begins his deprogramming magic, weaving clever, worn
phrases through Ruth‘s naïve retorts. He manages to open her curiosity about him and to
get her talking. An exit counselor‘s worst nightmare is a passive-aggressive client who will
show no reaction and say nothing for days on end, but Ruth accommodates this stage of
Waters‘ plan. She is hostile, insidiously seeking her strengths and his weaknesses, but
Waters expects as much. He calmly proceeds, citing Hindu scripture as easily as Socrates to
counter Ruth‘s objections. Waters‘ character is shallow, however, and never delivers the

Cultic Studies Journal, Volume 17, 2000, Page 135
texture and integrity we might expect from ―the best.‖ The dialog is choppy leaving too
much to the viewer to fill in. Campion tentatively affords Waters clever lines to help flesh
out his two-dimensional personality. He succumbs, for example, to the sexy wiles of Ruth‘s
sister-in-law when she arrives at the cabin one night to deliver food, coffee, and oral sex.
The sister-in-law, Yvonne, played by Sophie Lee, comes off as a star struck P.J. fan from the
moment they meet at the airport. She readily spills out her problems with sexual fantasies
to the superficially interested Waters. The moment they embrace, Yvonne asks, ―Do you
have a website‖? Funny, insider humor, as many exit counselors, me included, have
websites.
Thus, we learn in Campion style that Waters is a lecher. Despite the deprogrammer‘s effort
to end her devotion to Baba, Ruth appears to work out her Baba obsession in her own
mysterious way. We see her white devotee dress burning in one dramatic image in the night
outside the cabin. By what appears to be the second or third day at the cabin, she senses
that Waters is a pathetic, ―dirty old man,‖ and she even gets him to admit it after they
engage in clumsy passion and intercourse. The turning point for this first sexual encounter
occurs after Ruth wanders outside nude (sari now burned), confused and broken in spirit.
She walks on smooth white rocks strewn in sharp ―bull dust‖ (Aussie-speak for that harsh
terrain). Waters had taken her shoes to keep her from running. He approaches her with
compassion at first. She faces him and listlessly offers sexual contact. He states he never
had sex with a client, and he will not break his rule. Ruth then urinates down her legs. She
is emotionally lost and vulnerable, in need of comfort, and moves to embrace her nemesis.
He succumbs.
After intercourse, Waters is a changed man, hardly keeping to his intended task, now
entranced with his potential lover. But Ruth sees past him, and her tryst with him soon
turns into a cruel psychological game to break him down.
In what passes for a climactic scene in this film, Waters lies down and asks Ruth to do her
―worst‖ to him. She chooses to make him wear an ill-fitting, red dress that hardly covers his
groin, and she paints his lips red. Then she guides him onto his knees, drops her nickers for
him, and directs him to slowly --well, you get the image. More of the oral thing. Later,
while the used-up exit counselor sleeps in the red dress, we see Ruth wrapping books with
plastic bags around her feet so she can walk on the sharp, reddish sand. Campion
mischievously has Ruth use the exit counselor‘s reference books. Waters wakes in time to
see Ruth leave. Still in the red dress, he manages to put on one boot to begin his pursuit.
He catches her and they begin to scuffle. A frustrated Waters finally unleashes his macho by
knocking Ruth unconscious to the ground with a hard punch to the face.
By this time the security crew, in another location, sort out that Waters is having sex with
his client, so they go in a truck to confront him. Yvonne is with them when they pull up to
Waters, who now drives a large sedan with huge, decorative antlers on top. Waters tells
them that Ruth escaped into the desert. Yvonne, yet attracted to Waters, proceeds to get
into the car with him despite his mild protests. She is only slightly amazed at his disheveled
appearance in a red dress. As they drive away she hears pounding from the ―boot‖ (trunk)
of the car. She demands they stop. Yvonne discovers Ruth inside. It is unclear if Waters
thought he had killed her.
They leave a beaten Waters to fend for himself in the desert. In another scene we see
Waters fallen face down, exhausted. He stares deliriously into the distance and ―sees‖ Ruth
transformed into a six-armed, Hindu deity. Later, Ruth and companions find him by the road
and toss him into the back of the open truck. As they drive along, Ruth glances back at their
quarry. She has a change of heart. Perhaps she recalls the message, which he wrote in
reverse on her forehead earlier: She read, ―be kind,‖ in the mirror. She joins him in the
back and holds him.