The movie "Colonia," also named "The Colony," was released in the U.S. on April 15. It is widely known as one of Emma Watson’s latest movies. In this film she plays a young woman in search for her abducted boyfriend, who was taken to Colonia Dignidad (Dignity Colony), a religious sect which no one has ever escaped. As exciting and exhilarating as the movie is, it is actually an historical thriller as it is based on an actual torture camp that was once located in Chile

Many have overlooked the camp, Colonia Dignidad, over the years and now the true events behind the Chilean sect are being released. The residents of the colony were kept here essentially as slaves for over 30 years, held captives by this religious cult. For many years, from the 1960s to the1980s, German diplomats knew the things that occurred to the German citizens in the commune and did absolutely nothing to protect them. People were subjected to repressive rules, such as a ban on sex. Residents were to be segregated by gender and had to work 12 to14 hours without being allowed to talk to one another in order to earn their food each day.

All contact with the outside world from the compound was to be prohibited unless express approval was given by the man in charge, Paul Schafer. Paul Schafer was the true dictator of the colony, what he said goes, and members of the commune were in no position to argue, his word alone was law. Anyone who went against Schafer were then disciplined for their disobedience, through beatings, torture, electroshock therapy, and drugs.

Paul Schafer, was the leader of the religious cult. He was a former German Nazi, who was charged with sexually abusing two orphan boys at a prior orphanage he started in Germany. After being charged, he fled to Chile bringing many orphans and loyal followers with him. He was helped by an underground network of Nazis in South America and the pro-Nazi Chilean military to escape. Once in Chile, he purchased 70 square miles of land near the town of Parral, which he named Colonia Dignidad.

Schafer initially created his own state within Chile, with the support and protection of the Chilean dictator, General Augusto Pinochet. He built a power plant, hospital, orphanage, school, television station and two airstrips within his land. The airstrips were used for exporting goods that would be produced throughout the land, to torture anti-Pinochet political protesters and to transport illegal weaponry into the country.

General Augusto Pinochet came to power in 1973 and once he was in charge of Chile, Schafer was then able to take advantage of the circumstances by importing and exporting goods freely without paying taxes. However, General Augusto Pinochet fell out of power in the 1990s and Chileans began to reveal their horrific stories of experiences within the colony. In 1997, Schafer fled the colony to Argentina, where he was then arrested outside Buenos Aires in March 2005. He was extradited in Chile, and was sentenced to a total of 33 years in prison, for the sexual abuse of 25 German and Chilean children, along with torture, illegally possessing weapons and one case of murder. Paul Schafer died in a Santiago prison hospital of heart failure on April 24, 2010.

The movie, "Colonia," shows some of the tortuous trials many had to endure during their lives at Colonia Dignidad. The movie depicts the male lead going through electroshock therapy and torture when he arrives at the colony. Emma Watson can be seen in the movie providing labor in the fields from dawn till dusk, picking potatoes and corn. When the residents’ work is not performed well enough or if they were seen starting to slack, the woman watching over them beats them until they get back to work. You can also, see the residents of the colony blindly following Paul Schafer, believing that he is a messenger of God and doing anything he asks. We see Schafer, ordering others within the commune to beat one another to try literally to beat the devil out.

Today, Colonia Dignidad is now a tourist destination and has been renamed Villa Baviera. A colony that was once publicized as a Christian charity to local communities was a torture camp that has been turned into a German-themed resort. There is now a luxury hotel, a restaurant, wedding tents, playgrounds, swimming pools and hot tubs. It seems as if the German and Chilean government are trying to turn such a terrifying event in history into a luxury destination. Some of the community residents, who were once Schafer’s victims, view the change as a search for redemption. They believe that they will be able to put the past behind and change the landscape for the better, to show the beauty of the scenery without the past horrors that they have endured. Clearly, things are now different for the community, but they cannot forget the past that has affected and scared those who were victims of Paul Schafer and the Pinochet regime.