The sweeping story of a longtime disciple searching for the reincarnation of his Tibetan master will draw Buddhists and those who live via a Buddhist perspective. When it comes to crossover business (meaning everyone else), Unmistaken Child (Ha-Gilgul), Israeli director Nati Baratz's debut feature documentary, lacks the suspense and drama to win over specialty audiences outside the Buddhist community. While an appealing combination of travelogue, spiritual improvement story and road movie, Unmistaken Child fails to fully capitalize on its intriguing subjects.
Unmistaken Child is a four year account of disciple Tenzin Zopa's search for the reincarnation of his longtime Tibetan master Lama Konchog. Yet, the film never builds sufficient suspense despite sweeping photography of Nepal, Tenzin's bubbly personality and scenes of Buddhist rituals seldom captured on film.
With solid marketing partnerships from Buddhist organizations, Unmistaken Child will attract strong support from specialty audiences with an interest in Buddhism. Oscilloscope, which plans to release Unmistaken Child in early June, will fail to attract the critical word of mouth necessary for solid crossover business. With the majority of its box office coming from the Buddhist community, Unmistaken Child will likely remain a modest release similar to the 2005 Buddhist drama Travellers and Magicians ($506,793). Its larger audience will come from home video.
The film's dramatic problems lie with Baratz, who directed the TV documentaries Tel Aviv-Kyrgyzstan and Noches before making his feature directorial debut with Unmistaken Child. Tenzin has the charisma to support a feature documentary but Baratz never makes good use of his interviews and footage to reveal the soul of this amazing man.
Baratz's story also fails to capitalize on the rare footage of the astrological and mystical rituals involved in confirming a reincarnation. The material is fascinating and yet, late into the movie, Baratz fails to make it exciting.
Beautiful photography from cinematographer Yaron Orbach helps explain why Baratz chose to commit so much time, energy and resources to Tenzin's journey. His quest is epic on so many levels and Orbach's sweeping vistas capture the scope of what the young disciple is trying to accomplish.
While the film packs visual beauty, editor Ron Goldman and Baratz never bring the storytelling up to par. Unmistaken Childmay be a foolproof success when it comes to its target audience but its storytelling breakdown well keep more mainstream specialty audiences out of reach.
It's also worth noting that the subject of reincarnation has been treated better dramatically in both 1994's Little Buddha and 1997's Kundun. Perhaps Tenzin's story and Unmistaken Child's true success lies as source material for a dramatic feature. It would be a welcome form a creative reincarnation.
Distributor: Oscilloscope Laboratories
Cast: Tenzin Zopa
Director/Screenwriter: Nati Baratz
Producers: Ilil Alexander, Arik Bernstein and Nati Baratz,
Rating: Unrated
Running time: 102 min
Release Date: June 3 NY
