One Life
of the Buddha Wallah
Following on from filming a documentary, The Buddha Wallah, German film makers, Dieter Zeppenfled and George Maas went onto make a feature film (movie) called Two Lives starring Liv Ullman that was released in German cinemas last month.
The Buddha Wallah explored the Dharma teachings, practices and travels of Christopher Titmuss, as well as introducing audiences to the practical application of the Buddha’s core message.
For the documentary, they had filmed and collected more than 100 hours of material from Israel, Palestine, India, Thailand, Burma, Australia, USA, England, Germany and France. Their film studios spent a year editing the footage down to a 90 minute documentary that eventually became available for download through an international film distribution company in 2011. For further information. www.zinnober.de.
The documentary is listed on the website for the international documentary film festival in Amsterdam, Holland between November 20 and December 4, 2013. See link below:
http://www.idfa.nl/industry/tags/project.aspx?id=214d2568-d5d9-4bd4-8330-e7087c9690fc
Available in USA and Canada from:
http://www.gaiamtv.com/video/buddha-wallah
Between them, Dieter and Georg have made around 100 documentaries in the past 25 years including many for television in the German speaking world.
Dieter has participated in Christopher’s ongoing Dharma Enquiry retreats in Germany for more than a decade. Kali from Sweden had first proposed the documentary while two Dharma friends in California gave a generous donation towards some of the costs of making the documentary. The showing of the film raised more than $2000 for the Prajna Vihar School, Bodh Gaya, India.
Two Lives
– a movie based on actual events
Their new film, Two Lives has won critical acclaim in recent months. Based on actual events, the movie revolves around a women born of a Norwegian mother and Germany soldier – one of numerous babies conceived between soldiers and citizens in occupied countries. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, her past came to light when she is found out to have another identity, namely working for Stasi, the East German spy and surveillance agency.
The film explores the dynamics of a secret life of a woman with a German father who lives an apparently normal life in Norway. As the secret emerges of her other life, the whole family is shaken to the core in the struggle to know what is true and what is false, what is real and what is deceptive and the differences that ‘two lives” make to the family constellation.
What matters? The life the family lived or the life of the wife/mother they did not know about? Georg Maas, the director, wants his audience to try to understand the moral/personal issues involved in a complex situation rather than rush to judgement. He treats the difficulty of such an ethical issue with exceptional skill.
The movie has been picked as the German entry among 70 entries from 70 countries to go forward as the best Foreign Film at the Oscars in March. Five of the 70 films will be selected in February. Two Lives has been showing in Germany cinemas to very appreciative audiences. It was the first film show at an international film festival in Australia and widely applauded at other film festivals.
See links below for reviews of Two Lives.
http://www.heckler.com.au/2013/05/11/review-two-lives/
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/oscars-historic-drama-two-lives-615064
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/two-lives-zwei-leben-film-617496
We live in an era of constant US (sometimes referred to as the United Stasi of America) surveillance of citizens worldwide through the monitoring of millions upon millions of phone calls, right up to 35 heads of governments, as well as finding out about mails, using information gathering devices, making use of US software on computers and much else. There is the personal impact in terms of the secrecy, lies and deceptions that enable such spying operations to continue as well along with the erosion of trust within families, as well as between nations.
Two Lives reminds us of the impact this has on families, friends and countries.