This intimate, emotionally enthralling, colourful depiction of the living Tibetan Buddhist tradition documents the four-year search for a reincarnated master through the eyes of a sincere and passionate disciple.
An intimate, emotionally enthralling and colorful depiction of the living Buddhist tradition.
Screened as part of NZIFF 2009
Unmistaken Child 2008
Ha-Gilgul
As intrepid as his subject, filmmaker Nati Baratz documents the four-year search for a reincarnated Tibetan Buddhist master through the eyes of a sincere and passionate disciple. After years of isolation, Lama Konchog was declared the Greatest Tibetan Meditator of our time. At the end of 2001 he passed away. Tenzin Zopa, who, by his own account, sought him out in preference to his own family at the age of seven and served him for the next 21 years, is appointed by the Dalai Lama to lead the search for the reincarnation of his late Master. The ‘unmistaken child’ must be found within infancy. The ensuing quest, guided by funereal auguries and astrological consultation, takes Tenzin back to his own origins in the spectacular Tsum Valley of Nepal. We watch the touchingly sweet-natured servant become a dogged spiritual pilgrim – all the while seeking to become a servant again once the boy is found. Believers and non-believers alike will surely find this a most fascinating and unpredictably emotional expedition. — BG