The phenomenon of the genre, which is invariably based on a real crime and the search for maniacs, is experiencing a renaissance. Dark films and series about murders and their investigators have been at the peak of popularity for several years. We an...

The slogan of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is: Choose the Right. The slogan of the seven-episode FX project 'Under the Banner of Heaven': A Murder Beyond Belief. Working on a double murder case, a Mormon detective chooses the truth, which opens his eyes to the terrible facts about his faith, or rather, what lies beyond faith. Thus, the analysis of the crime leads to an analysis of the entire Mormon movement.

The series Under the Banner of Heaven is based on the non-fiction book of the same name by Jon Krakauer, published in 2003 (in Russian translation – 'Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith'). To write a book about the fastest-growing religion in the world ('sociologist Rodney Stark wrote in 1984 that, according to his calculations, by 2080 there would be 265 million Mormons on earth; in 1998, Stark revised his forecast and stated that by 2080 there would be about 300 million members of the LDS Church'; currently there are about 16 million Mormons worldwide), the author of the subsequently adapted bestsellers 'Into Thin Air' and 'Into the Wild' went to the 'center of the fundamentalist Mormon community, where 40,000 people still practice polygamy and avoid any contact with representatives of other religions.'

In his journalistic investigation, Krakauer tries to understand whether the text of the Book of Mormon (this is the main part of the canon, not counting the Bible) is a divine revelation or a grand deception, and how Joseph Smith's 1834 scripture justifies the brutal murder of Brenda Lafferty and her daughter in 1984 in the eyes of fellow believers.

The detective working on the case did not wish to appear in the book under his own name, so the internally conflicted Jeb Pyre (Andrew Garfield) is a character who combines the traits of the real police officer and the writer himself, who is skeptical of the radical branch of Mormonism.

The investigation leads him to a respected family in Utah, the cradle of Mormonism, which practices fundamentalist Mormonism. The preface to the book Under the Banner of Heaven states that 'practically all residents of Utah County have heard of the Laffertys': the patriarch of the clan, Watson Lafferty, was a well-known chiropractor, and his children were respected members of the church.

Against the backdrop of the economic crisis in the early 1980s, their manual therapy business declined, and the brothers decided to take care of the family in a peculiar way, coming into conflict with the law. Not only did the fundamentalist Mormons refuse to pay taxes, but they also later turned to polygamy, which displeased the government, despite the freedom of religion in America.

In 1984, when the Laffertys heard a divine revelation, their madness reached its peak. Claiming the role of president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the brothers asserted that they heard the voice of God. According to Smith's teachings, the president of the organization is an infallible prophet, seer, and revelator, so Mormons believe that through the chosen one, Jesus himself governs the LDS Church under the direction of the Heavenly Father. But what the Laffertys supposedly heard causes the detective to become mired in a crisis of faith. Darkness envelops him.

Showrunner of 'Under the Banner of Heaven' Dustin Lance Black discusses the trial of faith from a first-person perspective, as he himself grew up in a Mormon family and now intends to deal with his former co-religionists who commit lawlessness, self-proclaimed righteous men. He has already told stories about the lives of polygamous families from Utah as a screenwriter for the HBO project 'Big Love,' but in 'Under the Banner of Heaven,' his reflections on Mormons have become much broader and bolder.

In addition to the story from the 1980s, Black tells about the formation of the first prophet of the LDS Church, Joseph Smith, to whom the once truly believing Jeb constantly turns. In 'Under the Banner of Heaven,' the showrunner is uncompromising regarding Mormons, a view shared by Allen Lafferty, Brenda Lafferty's widower, who believes that his 'faith breeds dangerous people.' The author of the book of the same name, Jon Krakauer, also calls The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints one of the most violent religions in the world. Or... is it not that simple?  

In the end, having started as a classic true crime series, 'Under the Banner of Heaven' steps onto much more delicate ground, where vanity and selfishness inevitably lead to bloodshed, and doubt leads to exile. So what is it, happiness in ignorance? The decision is yours.