Director – Alejandro Jodorowsky

This is an allegorical film which depicts the process of spiritual search. It is based on Rene Daumal’s unfinished book ‘Mount Analogue’ and St. John of the Cross’s ‘The Ascent of Mt. Carmel’. The Holy Mountain is a difficult film since it is full of Christian symbolism which makes it incomprehensible in one viewing. Moreover, the film is not meant for sensitive eyes since it depicts male and female nudity, graphic scenes of animal slaughter and crude violence.

The spiritual path has always eluded description by either words or images. Therefore, symbols have been used by teachers or guides to direct the seeker on the right path. For instance Alchemy – the process of converting base metals to gold stands for the possibility of the transformation of man. The search for the ultimate is likened to a climb to the summit of a mountain overcoming various inner obstacles.

​The film uses these metaphors throughout. In brief, the storyline is of a thief who meets an Alchemist who along with seven other characters go in search of the masters residing on the holy mountain.

Director – Ki-duk Kim

This is a beautiful Korean film (2003) that captures your imagination with its heavenly scenery. The whole story is shot in a hut floating in a serene lake surrounded by tall mountains.

An old Buddhist monk lives in the hut with a mischievous young boy – one who ties stones to frogs, snakes and fish with a thread and enjoys their predicament. The master teaches him a lesson one day by tying a big stone to his back. (Spring)

When the boy grows up, he gets attracted to a young girl who had come to stay with them to heal herself. When the master discovers their liaison, he asks the girl to return. However, the boy misses her so much that he runs away in search of her.(Summer)

Many years later, he returns to the hut a dangerous criminal. The police soon catch up with him and take him away. (Fall)

The master dies. Winter sets in. The lake is frozen completely. The prisoner has completed his sentence and returns to the hut, a changed man. He puts the hut back in order and trains himself. One day, a woman abandons her baby at the hut.

When the baby grows up into a young boy, he is shown to torment snakes, frogs and fish by putting stones in their mouth. (Spring)

In most films, there is an ending – a resolution of the tensions that are built up during the story telling. However, Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter… and Spring is a true buddhist movie as it does not have an ending because the ending is simply another beginning.

Like the seasons, our life moves through stages and almost everyone experiences the same emotions, childhood antics, sexual attraction, agony of separation, anger, and repentance of actions. Life is a powerful stream through which we flow and experience different things just like changing of the seasons.

There is another Korean film which I find to be very similar in theme – Why did Bodhidharma come to the east?

Director – David O. Russell

Also known as I Heart Huckabees, this is as lovely and humorous a movie as it can get. Have you ever pondered over questions such as who you are, what is your purpose and what is the meaning of life? Even if you have, you would not have probed deeper because of urgent matters taking your attention. But what if you could hire detectives to do this job for you! The idea itself is so ridiculous that makes one laugh. But that exactly is the story of this movie.

A husband and wife play the detectives who are available on hire to find out the meaning of your life. These detectives are not saffron clad sages but suit-wearing professionals who work for a fee. The detectives have a brand of existential philosophy which they use to investigate matters. As they help their client, they run against one of their former students who has now adopted the opposite brand of philosophy Nihilism to help her clients.

​It is a great treat to watch the characters as they try to figure out the confusion, discontent and angst in their lives with the help of these philosophies. The movie is a laugh riot if you are even a little bit interested in philosophy.

Director – Khyentse Norbu

This is a simple movie shot in the picturesque country of Bhutan against the backdrop of the great Himalayas. It tells the story of a Bhutanese government officer who desperately wants to go to America – his land of dreams. He starts his journey from his remote village and on the way encounters an apple seller, a monk, and a merchant with his young daughter. As they have missed the bus, they hitch hike their way to the city.

To pass time, the monk tells a story of a young man who is similarly enchanted with dreams. Wanting to learn magic, he leaves home and reaches a lonely hut in the forest occupied by an old man with a young and attractive wife. Staying with them, the young man forgets about his dreams and falls in love with the wife of the old man. The story then takes a sinister turn with the young man realizing the danger in to which he had run into.

In the meanwhile, the officer takes a liking to the daughter of the merchant and is having second thoughts about going to America. All the while the monk is amused with the effect his story has on the officer who is impatient at one moment, irritable at another and chivalrous at yet another moment.

​Followers of Buddhism will love this movie, not because one of the central characters is a Buddhist monk, but because the story depicts vividly how desires drive and change man from moment to moment.

Director – Wachowski Brothers

What can I say about The Matrix. I am sure everyone who has seen this movie has loved it and more so if you are a spiritual seeker. The film depicts a futuristic scenario where mankind is living in illusion while in reality they are simply being used as energy sources by machine intelligence. There are innumerable parallels in the story with the search of the ultimate reality. This is a great movie.