The Jew in the Lotus

Halfway through Laurel Chiten's "inspired by" adaptation of Roger Kamenetz's account of his 1990 spiritual journey to Dharamsala, India as a struggling writer accompanying eight rabbis to a meeting with the Dalai Lama, we hear this characteristically vague and vapid quote from Kamenetz's diary: "I had a general sense that I was not in control of my life." The same, unfortunately, could be said of The Jew in the Lotus, a narratively inert and repetitious film that combines a barrage of haunting and expressive images from daily life in poverty-stricken India (home of the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader) with Kamenetz's almost completely unrelated, self-absorbed tale of mid-life spiritual angst (only in the second half of the film--unfairly, I think, after we've pretty much written off Kamenetz as a whiner--do we learn the real source of his anguish: the tragic loss of a baby son days after his birth). When we're finally treated to footage of the eagerly awaited Jewish/Buddhist summit, the meeting itself devolves rather quickly into farce as one elderly rabbi and the Dalai Lama engage in a spirited discussion about the Angel of Jews and the Angel of Tibet talking above their heads while the other non-mystical rabbis look on uncomfortably. It's the one really funny scene in the film, and it becomes a lightbulb-over-the-head moment for Roger regarding the mysterious juncture between Judaism and Tibetan Buddhism (since, according to the program summary, "the film does not put itself forth as a definitive look at Judaism or Buddhism but is a complete portrait of a man who is still in the process of formation," we never actually learn why). Although I count myself a major fan of Laurel Chiten's earlier Twitch and Shout (VL-1/96), which I consider one of the finest documentaries made in the past 15 years, I did not connect with The Jew in the Lotus. Of course, I'm also neither Jewish nor Buddhist, so your spiritual mileage may vary. Optional. Aud: C, P. (R. Pitman)