大象传媒

Thirteen years since first encountering one of America鈥檚 most notorious hate groups, award-winning film-maker Louis Theroux makes a long-anticipated return to Kansas to spend time with the Westboro Baptist Church - a hugely-controversial Christian ministry that for years has picketed at military funerals and other high-profile events with deliberately provocative and homophobic placards.

In 2006 and again in 2011, Louis uncovered a world of indoctrination masterminded by church-founder and figurehead Pastor Fred Phelps, known amongst his congregation as Gramps. But since his death in 2014, the church has experienced a significant change that has threatened to tear apart what was once a tight-knit family community and challenged their relevance in Trump鈥檚 America, where outrageous statements are par for the course. As well as a series of allegations about Pastor Phelps鈥檚 final days, including rumours of mental illness and his excommunication, the church has also been hit by a number of high-profile family defections, including Pastor Phelps's granddaughter Megan, now Westboro鈥檚 most prominent critic. Yet despite the unrest, the church has continued to attract new members, including Bradford-born Mathias Holroyd, who sees Westboro鈥檚 fire-and-brimstone rhetoric as the perfect tonic to his struggle to fit in with modern-day Britain.

Immersing himself in the strange and unpleasant world of Westboro, Louis explores what happens when a hate-group largely populated by one family loses its patriarch. And, as he discovers, Pastor Phelps鈥檚 doctrine of divine hate has cast a shadow not only on the church's true-believers but also on those who have managed to escape Westboro's vice-like grip.