Unmistaken Child

While there are a number of documentaries about Tibetan Buddhism, the trials of the Dalai Lama in exile, and the lives of Buddhist monks and faithful followers, Unmistaken Child tells a more personal story, chronicling the four-year search for the reincarnation of a renowned Tibetan teacher, Geshe Lama Konchog, by his humble 28-year-old disciple, Tenzin Zopa, whom Konchog essentially raised as a foster son until his death in 2001. Tenzin's odyssey takes him through each pass and rural village of the remote Tsum Valley of Nepal, seeking out every boy child born at the appropriate time. The film recalls the first act of Martin Scorsese's Kundun, but writer-director Nati Baratz focuses less on the “unmistaken child” of the title and more on the young searcher, a modest monk who undertakes his assignment with the nervous responsibility of a devoted son determined to fulfill his duty to his mentor, spiritual leader, and father figure. Along the way, we are treated to a tour of spiritual belief, Buddhist ceremony, and rural life in this remote region. But as the child is inevitably taken from his family and brought to the temple to fulfill his destiny, Tenzin's quiet dedication to his duty turns to brotherly affection and paternal protectiveness. The unmistaken child is still a child, after all, and Tenzin completes the circle by adopting a paternal role toward the now fatherless boy. Recommended. (S. Axmaker)