Synopsis

Where do you go when the world feels overwhelming and just plain wrong? Can you escape and start anew? The documentary Abode of Dawn focuses on a group of people trying to build a utopian society in the Siberian Taiga. Since the 1990s, they have been following a man who sees himself as Christ reborn: Vissarion. You can find his portrait in every house in the Abode of Dawn and yet he seems to be more of a means for channelling the longings of many of the residents. Their lives rotate around Vissarion like planets around the sun, though they hardly ever meet him.
The film does not ask: Is Vissarion truly the Son of God? Instead, it poses the question: Are the people here happier than they were before?