MILAREPA
2006, India/Bhutan, 90 min.; director: Neten Chökling; (subtitles)
This is the first part of the story of Milarepa, one of Tibetan Buddhism’s most famous yogis, adapted for the screen by a contemporary lama. The film concentrates on the causes and conditions that led Milarepa to search for mastery of traditional magic in the name of revenge. Director Neten Chökling was a stunt rider in Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche’s Travellers and Magicians, so he knows how to portray magic—and it’s not computer generated. Note how mist and dust are judiciously combined with modern technology to create an otherworldly effect.
Why It Matters: Milarepa’s youthful curiosity and impetuousness combine in his search for answers to life’s deepest questions, which leads him eventually to the realization that there might be something more important than the whims and desires of his own ego. Magic wrongly used for personal gain is Part 1 of the story; we can’t wait to see how the director handles Milarepa’s Buddhist education and enlightenment in Part 2.
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UNKNOWN WHITE MALE
2005, UK/U.S., 88 min.; director: Rupert Murray; documentary
On July 3, 2003, alone on a subway train bound for Coney Island, a thirty-seven-year-old British stockbroker-turned-photographer lost all memory. The film recreates the first terrifying hours as a disoriented Doug Bruce wanders around before encountering police, who send him to the Coney Island Hospital psychiatric ward. There he is given the identity tag “Unknown White Male.” What follows is his journey of re-discovery, for Doug is in the unusual position of experiencing the world with the eyes of a child but the mind and body of a man. As a result of his experience, Doug seems to have changed, and his friends find him a nicer person. This leads him to question whether he really wants his old memories back. This may be fine for Doug, but it affects his parents, his ex-girlfriend and his former friends in most unsettling ways.
Why It Matters: The fundamental question Doug asks himself and others is, “How much is our identity determined by the experiences we have, and how much is already there—pure us?” This film provides an extraordinary opportunity to explore the composition of personal identity and the relationship between memory and experience, how character is formed, and what happens when everything you know and understand about the world and yourself is suddenly gone.
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MACHUCA
2004, Chile, 120 min.; director: Andrés Wood; subtitles (U.S. only)
Machuca is a sensitive, touching account of the tragic events of Chile’s 1973 coup, seen through the eyes of two eleven-year-old boys growing up in Santiago. Gonzalo Infante is a shy but bright child from a well-to-do suburban family, circumstances loosely based on the director’s own childhood. Pedro Machuca is a smart, fearless child from an illegal shantytown just a few blocks away. Watch the way the director builds the political and emotional tension as the children awaken to their circumstances, in parallel to the growing state repression. The backdrop of Chile’s volatility is presented via television programs that play in the background, graffiti the boys pass on their bicycles, and adult conversations they overhear.
Why It Matters: As viewers, we’re always aware that the military coup against Allende’s government is lurking somewhere just over the horizon and that the two children are growing up in the shadow of anxiety and dread. At the same time, we experience the freshness and wonders of childhood. The film’s achievement is the way it presents the bittersweet taste of those apparent divisions, showing how affection and decency can overcome arbitrary personal differences.
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MOUNTAIN PATROL (KEKEXILI)
2005, China, 95 min.; director: Lu Chuan; subtitles
Based on a true story, this film records the efforts of the volunteers who patrol the Kekexili plateau in northwestern Tibet to stop the poaching of the rare Tibetan antelope, or chiru. In 1993, the murder of a volunteer patroller draws Ga Yu, a young and idealistic photojournalist from Beijing, to investigate. He accompanies the patrol on a gripping adventure that includes characters reminiscent of desperados from the nineteenth-century American West. Mountain Patrol was shot on the Kekexili plateau at 21,000 feet, under extremely difficult conditions. Look for stark vistas of impressive mountains and a bleached landscape of sand, light, and shadow. Note the way Ga Yu changes from an idealistic observer, distanced by the lens of his camera, into someone personally involved in the struggle. Be prepared for unflinching shots of thousands of rotting antelope carcasses, abandoned by the poachers after their pelts have been taken.
Why It Matters: The story’s hook is the endangered antelope, but as the drama unfolds, we see that it has as much to do with man’s inhumanity to man as to his fellow creatures. Whether the film paints a positive picture of the Chinese occupation of Tibet or is a metaphor for China’s ongoing aggression against the Tibetan people remains ambiguous. The story filed by Ga Yu’s real-life counterpart prompted the Chinese government to establish the Kekexili as a nature reserve, and today the chiru population is increasing.
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PASSAGE TO BUDDHA (HWA-OM-KYUNG)
Korea, 1993, 136 min.; director: Jang Sun-woo; subtitles
Hwa-Om-Kyung is Korean for the Avatamska or Flower Ornament sutra, which inspired former monk and political activist Ko Un’s novel Little Pilgrim, the basis for this film. The story follows Seong-je, a boy of about nine who, after witnessing his father’s cremation, decides to embark on a journey, ostensibly to find his mother, that turns out to be a metaphor for the search for enlightenment. This is a magical journey in the tradition of “Journey to the West” and so it has certain peculiarities: Seong-je has never seen his mother and he never ages (a traditional Buddhist outlook holds that an enlightened person retains the open and immediate perceptions common to children). Notice how the director moves between images of a misty, mythical world and the desolate landscape of modern rural Korea, presenting an aura of the sacred that is firmly anchored in reality.
Why It Matters: This is a quiet and intelligent meditation on life that beautifully evokes the qualities of path and journey. Just as with a Zen koan that has no immediate answer but develops in our understanding over a period of time, Seong-je eventually ends up in the right place because he comes to realize that he was there all along.
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CHRISTMAS IN THE CLOUDS
2001, U.S., 96 min.; director: Kate Montgomery
Ray Clouds-on-Fire, the handsome and well-educated manager of an upscale but struggling tribal ski resort, dreams of sold-out suites and four-star reviews. A travel reviewer has just announced a surprise visit, and Ray is eager to get it just right. However, Tina, the attractive woman he picks for the reviewer, turns out to be his father’s online pen pal. Since none of them have met before and they all have certain expectations, mistaken identity plays a big part in what unfolds. Graham Greene delivers an exquisite performance as the resort’s vegetarian chef, who refers to the animal dishes on the menu with sorrowful loving-kindness in order to discourage meat eaters. Enjoy the film’s delightful brand of American-Indian humor as the plot unfolds, Ray and Tina fall in love, and the real reviewer questions not only the resort’s quality but also his own sanity.
Why It Matters: It’s so rare to find a seasonal movie that one can feel comfortable promoting in a Buddhist magazine. We liked this one so much that we’ve been watching for the DVD release for five years.
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