Unmistaken Child (2008)

Director:

Nati Baratz

Writer:

Nati Baratz (written by)

Release Date:

4 June 2009 (Netherlands)

Genre:

Documentary

Tagline:

A Tibetan monk's search for the reincarnation of his beloved teacher

Plot:

In Nepal, a venerable monk, Geshe Lama Konchog, dies and one of his disciples, a youthful monk named Tenzin Zopa...

Awards:

8 wins

Cast

Tenzin Zopa

Also Known As:

Hagilgul (Israel: Hebrew title) (TV title)
The Baby and the Buddha (UK) (TV title)

Runtime:

102 min | Canada:102 min (Toronto International Film Festival)

Country:

Israel

Language:

English | Tibetan | Hindi | Nepali

Color:

Color

Certification:

Netherlands:AL | Singapore:PG | Canada:G (British Columbia) | Australia:G

Company:

Samsara Films

Soundtrack:

Across the mountain

Unmistakable Beauty

Unmistaken Child documents another world. It is a world where events that seem to be the products of belief are actually experienced. A deceased saint chooses to be reincarnated; his devoted assistant is asked to locate a child whose body is now inhabited by the saint. Worlds of knowledge that most of us call superstition are brought into play. What is most astounding is that everyone involved in this challenge agrees that the mission and the saint himself, in whatever form he appears, are sacred, and that finding and bringing him to recognition is, as the young assistant says, "a thousand times more important" than anything else.

Nati Baratz, the Israeli filmmaker responsible for this amazing movie, started out to make a film about a group of Tibetan Jews. That he was drawn into filming the search for the reincarnated saint and willing to devote over five years of work to that effort is testimony to the power of attraction presented by the monks whose search is documented. That some of the highest spiritual leaders alive today, including the Dalai Lama, allowed Mr. Baratz and his crew to film their intimate meetings and sacred rituals testifies additionally to the deep trust these leaders invested in the filmmaker.

We the audience can only watch, perhaps in disbelief, perhaps in reverence of the devotion to task - both the task of locating the reincarnated saint and the task of filming the arduous search. Nothing is asked of us as we watch events unfold. Detail by detail, everything is revealed in its own time. Baratz patiently shows us another way of being, one that challenges and at the same time embraces our Western logic driven frame of reference.

Is this film evidence that those who hold the great spiritual knowledge of the East are willing at last to share their knowledge with us? Or are we simply being shown the chasm that divides us from that knowledge? Has the time come for humanity to awaken from its eternity of sleep? Or are we simply being shown another cultural reality? These are some of the questions viewers might ponder after seeing Unmistaken Child.