A new Netflix documentary, Trust Me: The False Prophet, details how two undercover filmmakers helped bring down Samuel Bateman, a polygamous Mormon cult leader now serving a 50-year prison sentence for sex crimes involving minors.
Cult expert Christine Marie and her husband Tolga Katas infiltrated the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (FLDS) community in Utah, gaining the trust of Bateman and his followers. They were eventually invited into his home, where he presided over 20 'wives', many of them underage.
The incriminating footage they shot, along with witnesses they helped turn, proved essential to the FBI's case against Bateman and other men. The series also features interviews with victims who were manipulated into defending their abuser.
Director Rachel Dretzin, who previously made Keep Sweet: Prey and Obey about the FLDS, said the material had 'the elements of a thriller'. She noted that Bateman often came across as a 'bumbling and pathetically narcissistic figure', providing comic relief despite his serious crimes.
Marie and Katas could not make the documentary themselves because of their role as informants, so they appear as subjects within the film, revealing how they staged shoots and interviews under the pretence of making a flattering documentary about the cult.
