Preview: The International Buddhist Film Festival

By Londonist Last edited 143 months ago
Preview: The International Buddhist Film Festival

The story of Buddha as narrated by his most famous Hollywood follower, a Bangkok monastery-murder-mystery and a road movie with Tibetan nuns all feature in a film festival starting today, 11 April.

The five-day International Buddhist Film Festival runs at the Apollo Piccadilly Circus cinema until Sunday.

Richard Gere narrates The Buddha, which tells the life of the 6th Century BC prince turned spiritual leader, while Mindfulness And Murder is a whodunit set among monks – think The Name Of The Rose, but in Thailand.

Karma, meanwhile, sees a Tibetan nun set out to find funds for her abbess’s funeral and features the line "You’re desperately after something… you won’t get it, but you won’t fail" – which seems as Buddhist a statement as is possible to come up with.

Elsewhere, the leader of Burma’s pro-democracy party and Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi is celebrated in a double-header of Lady Of No Fear and Into The Current.

The mix of features and documentaries – including accounts of arduous spiritual ritual, pilgrimage and the ‘crazy wisdom’ of of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche – are largely UK or European premieres.

Last Updated 11 April 2012