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On March 20, 1995, members of Japan's Buddhist splinter cult group Aum Shinrikyo targeted the Tokyo subway system with a lethal sarin gas attack, resulting in the deaths of 12 people and the hospitalization of thousands. Filmmaker Tatsuya Mori was given rare access to the cult's inner workings in 1996, after it had changed its name to Aleph and was in a state of crisis: its charismatic founder/leader Shoko Asahara was jailed for the subway attack and his would-be successors were bickering over whether to steer the group away from its violent tactics (it was later revealed that the Tokyo incident was not their first use of sarin gas against the general population) or to resume with the original warped vision. Mori's film is an extraordinary portrait of a fringe community at war with itself as well as the greater society surrounding it, and while some of the finer points relating to Japanese society may be lost in translation, what emerges here is a stunning and provocative portrait of religious fanatics who've taken their faith to insane extremes—an uncomfortable yet timely reminder that fanaticism and cruelty are hardly unique to any particular people or region. Highly recommended. [Note: A2, Mori's 2001 follow-up documentary, is also newly available.] Aud: C, P. (P. Hall)