The Handmaid's Tale (1985/11 hours): After a staged attack that killed the President of the United States and most of Congress, a radical political group calling itself the "Sons of Jacob", exploiting religious ideology, launched a revolution. The United States Constitution was suspended, newspapers were censored, and what was formerly the United States of America was changed drastically into a military dictatorship resembling a theonomy, known as the Republic of Gilead.
The new regime moved quickly to consolidate its power, overtaking all
other religious groups, including traditional Christian denominations;
and reorganized society using a peculiar interpretation of some Old Testament ideas, and a new militarized, hierarchical model of social and religious fanaticism
among its newly created social classes. Above all, the biggest change
is the severe limitation of people's rights, especially those of women,
making them unable to hold property or handle money, forbidding them to
read or write, and depriving them of control over their own reproductive
functions.
