The Asana Travelogue is titled 'The breathing god' in Germany. I went to see it to get some background information on yoga. What I learned in two hours could have been compressed into a five minute report. The film feels like Schmidt-Garre went to film rather aimlessly for some years and then tried to stitch the material to a story afterwards.
He starts out to discover the 'origins of modern yoga' which is a highly relevant question. Is this really an ancient technique or just a good marketing story? Without much explanation - which was generally lacking in many places - he then establishes that one guru (Krishnamacharya) was the source of yoga and starts interviewing his relatives and disciples. I was quickly confused by the different characters with complicated names which weren't properly placed into context. They all have a lot to say, but fail to tell a combined story. He adds a couple of personal yoga experiences where he is instructed by gurus. But the point of this does not really become clear as it does not add value to see an old German make a lengthy head stand.
So instead of a clear story that answers his originally posed question, we are just left with interspersed interview snippets which lets me assume that was just all he could make of the material in the end. The lesson we are left with is that either modern (Western) yoga has no clearly identifiable origin or that at least he has not been able to find it.
He starts out to discover the 'origins of modern yoga' which is a highly relevant question. Is this really an ancient technique or just a good marketing story? Without much explanation - which was generally lacking in many places - he then establishes that one guru (Krishnamacharya) was the source of yoga and starts interviewing his relatives and disciples. I was quickly confused by the different characters with complicated names which weren't properly placed into context. They all have a lot to say, but fail to tell a combined story. He adds a couple of personal yoga experiences where he is instructed by gurus. But the point of this does not really become clear as it does not add value to see an old German make a lengthy head stand.
So instead of a clear story that answers his originally posed question, we are just left with interspersed interview snippets which lets me assume that was just all he could make of the material in the end. The lesson we are left with is that either modern (Western) yoga has no clearly identifiable origin or that at least he has not been able to find it.