Sartaj Singh
With director Paula Elle at the helm, ‘Bonds Will Be Broken’ narrates the story of a woman going undercover into a mysterious cult to save her sister. When Anna’s sister, Nina, is drawn into the clutches of a charismatic leader, she seems to slowly disconnect from her family while becoming entangled in a self-improvement cult. Having tried in vain to reach out to her, Anna decides to take matters into her own hands. Pretending to be a new member joining the fold, she enters the cult’s annual retreat and begins to search for her sister. What Anna finds at the event shocks her to her core, and she is reinvigorated in her rescue mission. The Lifetime thriller revolves around the sinister cult and Anna’s discovery of their activities, striking a chord of familiarity that begs further investigation.
Bonds Will Be Broken is Likely Inspired by the NXIVM Self-Help Cult
Although ‘Bonds Will Be Broken’ is an imaginative and original movie written by Jon Gilbert, it is inspired by true events relating to an actual cult’s manipulation of hapless new members. In particular, the Lifetime film centers on a self-help cult, and the most prominent case of a self-help cult exposé has been that of NXIVM. NXIVM was founded in 1998 by Keith Raniere and Nancy Salzman in Albany, New York, as a self-help organization. It sold various multi-level marketing programs through a series of workshops focusing on wealthy individuals and actresses.
Keith Raniere headed the organization, using his charisma and the facade of an intellectual to lure members into what quickly became an exclusive group of wealthy individuals by the early 2000s. Despite former members trying to raise alarms and asserting that NXIVM was actually a cult, it continued to grow, and in 2006, DOS (Dominus Obsequious Sororium) was formed. Portrayed as a female empowerment group welcoming female members only, DOS actually became a sex cult with Raniere at the center. He and his aides were involved in coercive control, branding, and sexual exploitation of the women recruited into its ranks. Lured with promises of sisterhood, the women were made sex slaves, with Raniere being their master, even branding them with his initials using a smoldering cauterizing device.
The New York Times published an exposé of NXIVM in 2017, revealing its true nature with witness testimonies from former members, including those who had been in the inner circle of DOS. A federal investigation was soon underway, and in March 2018, Keith Raniere was arrested in Mexico and extradited to the United States. On charges of racketeering, wire fraud conspiracy, sex trafficking, and forced labor conspiracy, Raniere was sentenced to 120 years in prison on October 27, 2021. Other high-ranking members of NXIVM, like Nancy Salzman, were charged similarly and sentenced to a few years in prison.
Similarities With the NXIVM Cult Case
There are multiple cases of cults luring members in through self-help seminars and courses like with the NXIVM cult. One of the reasons this works as a strategy is because those seeking self-help content are usually experiencing a significant problem in their lives that they are unable to solve or come to terms with. That’s when a charismatic leader steps in and offers a solution to all their problems and promises back control of their lives, making such individuals the perfect target audience for cult conversions.
Just as NXIVM seemed perfectly harmless from the outside, so too did the cult in ‘Bonds Will Be Broken,’ but it was only behind closed doors that their realities surfaced. Similar to the events of the film, the NXIVM cult was ultimately opposed by those who managed to escape its grasp by one way or another. Lifetime’s ‘Bonds Will Be Broken’ narrates a fictional and original story that is likely inspired by the true events of self-help cult cases such as that of NXIVM.
Read More: My Son’s Deception: Is the Lifetime Movie Based on a True Story?
