Landing in Los Angeles: Unmistaken Child

Tenzin Zopa searches for the Unmistaken Child

It’s worth noting for residents of Los Angeles that the terrific documentary Unmistaken Child opens here today and that the president of the Tibetan Association of Southern California will speak at Laemmle’s Sunset 5 after the 7:10 screening tonight and again tomorrow June 13th.

Nati Baratz’s documentary tells the story of Buddhist disciple Tenzin Zopa’s four-year search for his reincarnated master and I liked it quite a bit.

If you’re outside of New York and Los Angeles, you can check out the film’s upcoming screening schedule here. In the mean time, you can read LiC’s June 5th 4-star review here and you can read what some other smartypants film critics have said after the jump.

Stephen Holden – The New York Times

Unmistaken Child inevitably leads you to consider the material world and to contemplate the balance in your own life between physical gratification and spirituality. The rugged landscape, in which mist filters through craggy cliffs and wild flowers seem to dance in the mountain meadows, suggests that religion and geography are profoundly intertwined. How we perceive the universe, time, death and rebirth has everything to do with altitude and latitude.

Andrew O’Hehir – Salon

There have been any number of movies about Tibet and its esoteric Buddhist tradition over the past decade or two…Unmistaken Child stands above most others in offering us an intimate look at Tibetan Buddhism in action, with no external commentary or narration.

Kenneth Turan – The Los Angeles Times

Given the intensity of Zopa’s devotion to [his master], his interaction with the child, who comes to call the monk Big Uncle, is joyous and touching. Even more touching, though hardly joyous, is the dilemma of the boy’s parents, who have to decide whether to basically give him up for adoption, reincarnation or not, to the world of Buddhist monasteries.

Turan especially gets the multi-layered emotion of the film. Tenzin Zopa is on an epic journey, but also a deeply personal one and both are captured by Baratz. He also keys in on how this is a multi-layered story that is a lot more complicated than just finding the right child.

Unmistaken Child is a great documentary that I like more and more as I continue to think about it. Check it out if you get a chance.

Filed under: Upcoming
Tags: Nati Baratz, Unmistaken Child