GOLDEN CHILD. Unmistaken Child, a documentary following the
four-year journey of Geshe Tenzin Zopa, a Tibetan monk charged by His
Holiness the Dalai Lama with finding the reincarnation of Lama Konchog,
opens Friday, July 10 at Portland’s Fox Tower Cinema. (Photos courtesy of
Oscilloscope Laboratories)
From The Asian Reporter, V19, #26 (July 7, 2009), page 11.
In search of a saintly soul
Unmistaken Child
Directed by Nati Baratz
Co-produced by Samsara Films and Alma Films
Distributed by Oscilloscope Laboratories
Opening Friday, July 10 at Portland’s Fox Tower Cinema
By Ronault L.S. Catalani
For more than 700 years Tibetan Buddha lamas have been studying and
shaping their unique worldview, all the while gently guiding their faithful.
Seven hundred years of rigorous inward examination, undisturbed by nasty
urban distractions or by grubby outside cultural influences, has produced
extraordinary metaphysics.
Despite His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s humble insistence that their
monastic product is simply a matter of verifiable common sense, few would
argue that Tibetan Buddha Dharma priests don’t also present the rest of our
planet with a profound portal into the mystery of human existence.
Unmistaken Child is a slice of that action, just a piece of those
priests’ traditional practice. Filmmaker Nati Baratz manages this enormous
spiritual enterprise with much the same apparent simplicity of his subject
matter. His sliver of the dharma pie is a story about Lama Konchog
Rimpoche’s departure from one discrete life and his subsequent return to
earth in the body of another. Reincarnation.
Rebirth — a proposition sounding as commonplace as it sounds improbable.
But as the Dalai Lama is wont to say: Don’t just believe it, try it (try Mr.
Baratz’s movie, not recycling your soul) and judge for yourself.
Two kinds of true love
Unmistaken Child follows the loop between earthly lives of
world-renowned cleric and teacher Geshe Lama Konchog. Mr. Baratz’s eye
follows the late-Lama Konchog’s sad-sad student determinedly helicoptering
and hiking up and down rocky Himalaya highlands, searching for the
transmigrated soul of his beloved teacher in the little bones of a village
boy. The young monk, Geshe Tenzin Zopa, is guided by that rarified Tibetan
tech developed by those venerable masters over all those centuries already
mentioned. It must be done because Lama Konchong isn’t done with his work
among us.
This is a journey of self-discovery and worldly enlightenment, charmingly
consistent with the Western road-film genre. Mr. Baratz’s long lens lingers
even longer moments on the conflicted eyes of mothers and fathers at once
understanding the spiritual significance of the stubborn monk’s search
(their little guy could be a very old soul committed to reducing the quantum
of planet earth’s suffering) — while capturing in the exact same parental
moment, the pain of giving up their precious baby boy. Two kinds of true
love.
Sure, there’s more. Like: How a wobbly and short toddler, wise as a lama,
passes the scrutiny of his Tibetan Buddha Sangha hierarchy, including the
14th Dalai Lama, Geshe Tenzin Gyatso — Yes, him. His Holiness is in this
film too.
So much more is presented and nuanced by director Baratz’s patiently
paced film. He sets out a gentle and muscular magic. It’s a lovely journey.
Just like our noisy planet’s silent arch, spinning through all that space.
All that mystery.
Unmistaken Child opens Friday, July 10 at Portland’s Fox Tower
Cinema, located at 846 S.W. Park Avenue. For more information, including
showtimes, call 1-800-326-3264, ext. 327. To read about the cast and crew,
film festival honors, and other reviews, visit <www.unmistakenchild.com>.
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