What does loyalty mean to you? For Tenzin Zopa, the central character, who we follow as the plot of this documentary uncovers, it definitely means a lot. Moreover, loyalty and faithfulness to his master Geshe Lama Konchong is central not only to the narration of this movie, but to his even individual character. Lama's Heart Disciple's quest to find his master's reincarnated body touches you upon multiple vectors it takes: depth of personal relations between Tenzin and Lama before he died, and after with his reincarnated self; numerous Buddhist traditions that we see following Tenzin on his quest; and central to this movie the peaceful meditative state you are to acquire.
Despite the central to Buddhism notion of non-attachment, this movie shows the close connection between Lama and his disciple that they acquired during the 21 years of their solitary retreat, and that Tenzin continue keeping with his reincarnation in the body of a little boy. The personal details of their relationship are what makes the character of this movie appealing and alive. Non-attachment central to Buddhist tradition is based on the belief that our attachment to things and people in this life is caused by ignorance that our life is suffering and aimed at keeping us in the samsara. But from Tenzin's confession that he couldn't resist from crying upon the departure of his Master, we realize that even skillful believers cannot overcome their human nature. Although his sorrow did touch my heart, it is his story about plucking the flower in his Master's ear during his meditation, and Lama's consequent return of this flower to Tenzen during his sleep is what melted my heart. We later see that friendship, spiritual love and loyalty that Tenzen acquired for his master being his attendant is being transferred to the little boy that turns out to be his master's reincarnation. The way Tenzen always carries the boy in his hands or on his shoulders, the way he looks at him, plays and talks to him cannot leave you indifferent to the life they're about to have.
Many celebrations and ceremonies shown throughout the movie uncovers a lot of details about the Buddhist traditions. Movie starts with the funeral ceremony of Geshe Lama Konchong, where we see the procession of Buddhist monks accompanied by the music and mantras. Then we see the body of Lama wrapped in many clothes as it was described in Death of the Buddha Sutra, and the consequent fire and smoke that was taking it. What really got imprinted in my memory is the image of one of the monks who was looking at the fire as if he was burning in it himself, and also the rainbow that showed up on the sky after the ceremony, which is very symbolic to the reincarnation process that was about to begin. At the celebration of the Tibetian New Year and seeing some Buddhists wearing yellow hats, we understand that this is the Gelug- This Tibetan Buddhist school was founded by Tsongkhapa, also known as Yellow Hats School. This knowledge would be also useful for us to understand Tenzen's close appreciation of nature, as Gelug follows the Mahayana tradition. Then we are to observe one of the most central to this movie ceremony that intends to check the authenticity of Lama's reincarnation. Obviously, as a very sceptic viewer the little boy's choice of Lama's things was hard to believe for me, especially, because his father/brother had to take and guide his arm during the procedure. But later, when the boy shows at Lama's and his picture and then points at himself and says that these 2 people are him, then I started to believe. Although one might raise concerns about this boy's absence of choice over his life and his family's loss of their child, I don't agree with that, because I think it is an honor for their child to be chosen to become a future Lama.
Speaking about the meditative state that you acquire once you start watching the movie, it is the nature and the music in this movie that calms you down and help you "tame the mokey" a.k.a. your consciousness. Buddhist close connection to the nature, and compassion towards all beings, as well as Buddhist emphasis on the cyclic nature of the world is evident in monk's discussion of blue, white, flowers that will cover the field in the summer, but which hadn't flourished yet because it's not the time yet. Then he moves to describing plants move caused by the wind as the dance moves: "Everybody would dance. Every nature tree would dance". And then when the bamboo tree is moved by the wind flow, he gets very excited and happy saying that "Here, here! It's dancing!". Then he shows the flower that was attached to his ear praising its beauty, happiness, and freedom which aligns with Mahayana Buddhist tradition of praising all beings as sentient due to them being comprised of Buddha nature. But he is fast to apologize and explains that in order to pick up the flower, he asked permission from the tree. And the music that accompanies all of these beautiful and using Tenzen's terms "free and happy" natural sights just makes the watching even more peaceful and pleasant.
Overall I would definitely recommend watching this movie even if you have very limited knowledge of Buddhist traditions as this movie does a magnificent job of bringing the central to Buddhism vibes of peace and balance. But I need to caution that it requires a little bit of effort to follow the movie as unlike the modern movies it doesn't hurry in uncovering the plot.
Reviews
2 Reviews
Everybody Dies But Me
(2008)
ADULTery: Cheating on Childhood & Life
6 March 2019
Warning: Spoilers
If you expect someone to die in this movie based on the title, you should probably reconsider your choice, and may be watch something like Game of Thrones or one of Tarantino's movie. Because Gai Germanika is an artist from another league. She boldly represents the New Drama movement as well as documentary movies' artists that are moved by the desire to show the unpolished reality of our life. So, if you were once a teenager, you will be able to relate to this movie.
In Everybody Dies but Me Gai Germanika provides a complex documentary insight into the youth development and aims to recreate the brutal life of marginalized groups. Gai Germanika is a female, independent, young director in an old male and large production dominated industry. Her unconventional profile as well as her art stand out and resist the norms of Russian cinematography. Similarly, Katia, Zhanna, and Vika- the main heroines of the movie- are in the opposition of power structures. The movie brilliantly portrays common to all young people and especially teenagers experience of resentment, opposition and constant conflict both with external and internal worlds. The concept of "negative identity" resulted from the feeling of resentiment is central to the movie and is especially evident in the hostile and violent way girls treat their childhood. This violence in turn, is a response to the disenchantment with adults and school officials that were once held as role models and omniscient authorities. One of the very first examples of internal conflict we see in the scene when Zhanna attempts to cut her wrists as a punishment for taking her father's fishes to comfort the dead cat in a grave. Thus, the suicidal scene showcases Zhanna's realization of her own immaturity and frustration with her childish and naïve behavior. This scene is then immediately followed by a naked Katia sitting on the pipes in something like a basement and repeating following: "Pust' budet diskoteka i u menia budet paren'" (Let the school dance happen and I'll get a boyfriend). Diskoteka (school dance) and getting a boyfriend are repeatedly emphasized as initiation process into the adult world and a way to finally defeat their childishness. But the culmination of this internal conflict and hostility towards their childishness for me was Katia's sexual intercourse with Alex. Because although we see the unpleasantness and painfulness of the process for Katia, when Alex finishes, she says that she felt very good and it wasn't like anything before. Thus, we can clearly deduce that Katia feels proud of ending her childhood and conforms with what she thinks an adult would say despite the abuse she experienced.
The choice of the mundane, very common experiences and settings in which Gai Germanika places her heroines don't seem to help us understand and perceive their characters. This usually negatively affects the connection between the audience and the main heroines, possibly lowering the degree of sympathy towards the hardships of their life. However, this can be easily explained by the intentional depersonalization and focus on group identity in the best traditions of New Drama achieved through verbatim (Beumers and Lipovetsky 2010). Thus, girls' rough speech consisting of youth slang and interjections: "blin, koroche, vashche, ovtsa" creates a sense of authenticity of a marginalized group they belong to. And in contrast to conventions, make them believable and real to the audience (Beumers and Lipovetsky 2010).
Gai Germanika's documentary shooting techniques is another diamond in the crown of this movie, as they recreate the illusionary sense of presence. Shaky shots created with limited usage of camera track sliders, Steadicam or any stabilizing techniques, and dominant usage of hand-held camera imitate home videos and strengthens the truthfulness of the picture. The close-up, medium close-up, and over-the-shoulder shots, in turn, also engage the audience as life witnesses of the action. Another spectacular feature of this movie is that true depiction of common experiences makes it relatable to all, as we were all once teenagers just like these girls to some degree.
It shouldn't therefore be surprising that Gai Germanika's excellence in both shooting and writing, as well as directing in Everybody Dies but Me got a massive recognition on national and global scale, as it collected Nika Award in "Young Talent Discovery of the Year" nomination, Prix Regards Jeune and special mention in the Caméra d'Or ("Golden Camera" award) on Cannes Film Festival, CineVision award of the Munich Film Festival, as well as «Best Actress» award for the three lead actresses on 26 Brussels International Independent Film Festival.
Although by now you should be already downloading the movie, I still feel an obligation to explain the title due to my disappointing disclaimer in the beginning. But you can stop now to solve this riddle yourself. I must also note that Gai Germanika came up with the title only after shooting the movie, so you can similarly deduce the meaning of it after watching.
But for those interested, let me continue... As I mentioned before, Everybody Dies but Me is a complex picture. Gai Germanika doesn't only discuss the resentment of childhood, disenchantment with adult authority, and making sense of Self in terms of opposing childhood as the Other discussed above. It also rotates around young generation's alarming attitude towards the death. The phrase proclaimed by Katia a.k.a. the title of the movie when she returns home from diskoteka, therefore, is symbolic for teenagers' rejection of death. Because apart from the desire for sexual relations as a mean to be initiated to the adult world, teenagers are also shown as consuming alcohol and constantly smoking cigarettes, as if death is not something that can happen to them. Thus, young people commit not only ADULTery on their childhood, but also on their life.
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