The film "Samsara" was made as a result of the collaboration of many countries: India, France, Italy, Germany, and thus, of many cultures. Nevertheless, the outcome turned out to be quite authentic in relation to Asian culture and Buddhist traditions specifically. If you are already familiar with Asian films, this movie would not surprise you with its pretty slow pace, absence of dynamics and vivid actions, but clear philosophical message.
The idea of the film is in its name, i.e. "Samsara". The main character goes all the way through ascetic way of life to the obtaining a family with the only one purpose - reach the enlightenment and get out of these infinite cycle of births, deaths and human sins. What is important here is that this monk, whose name is Tashi, have chosen to reach the Dharma in unusual way. He decides for himself that in order to cease all the cravings, it is important to firstly experience and feel them. And in my opinion, that is likely to be a right way to go in terms of accepting one religion or the other. At some point of studying Buddhism and how the Sangha is functioning, I, personally, asked myself: "Is it right that some newborns are given to the monastery so that they have no other choice rather than accepting Buddhism as their way of life? What if it is not what they would like to do in future, and everything they would do will not come from their hearts, but just would be the result of habit?" That turned out to be the case of Tashi. Even after meditating for 3 years, he could not achieve the enlightenment because his heart was still in searching for some pleasures. But when he finally reached it, he understood that now he wants more and more. And there, the main question of the whole movie comes: "What is more important: to please thousands of cravings or to get rid of one?" The answer to this is left to the viewers, as usually.
What I liked in this film and what have not been mentioned in any Buddhist films that I have watched, is the importance of women, of wives in the society, and the egoistic nature of this so highly valued "detachment from everything". The wife of Tashi was there for him all the way through those difficulties in their life, but at the end of the day, he, like Buddha Sakyamuni, just left her with their son when he thought he was ready to achieve enlightenment. But nobody thinks that probably his wife was the first one to achieve it and was guiding him, but she was so full of compassion and that she cannot left everything she has. Can we call this enlightenment? Can we still undermine the role of women in Buddhism? So this was an important and unique idea that this movie has demonstrated.
Overall, the film has several unique messages to think about, and for those who love philosophical movies, it is definitely a must-watch. I did not like the camera work, because it was not an aesthetically pleasant film to watch. I also expected that there might have been beautiful nature views, which were not depicted here, but are present in most of the Asian films. But probably, it was made intentionally to show the real life, but not just a pretty picture. Also even for me, a person who does not love action films, it was too slow. Some episodes could have been a little shorter in order not to lose the viewer's attention. But in general, I would recommend this film not to general audience, but to people who are probably struggling with finding themselves in life, or who are interested in Buddhism and Asian culture.
