On a rainy Friday afternoon, I managed to spend some time with Israeli filmmaker Nati Baratz. We met at Manhattan’s Film Forum, where his film, Unmistaken Child, began it’s U.S. theatrical tour last Wednesday and will be playing there through Tuesday, June 16^th. Clutching an umbrella that flopped in and out which he offered me as a canopy repeatedly, he and I chatted about his career, his film, and the current state of documentary cinema.

The film is his first theatrical venture. A graduate of Tel Aviv University’s film program, Mr. Baratz made two documentaries for television, but as he tells it, he was a hired gun on those projects, taking them on in an effort to keep his chops up. Unmistaken Child follows the buddhist monk Tenzin Zopa on his search for the reincarnation of his late master, Geshe Lama Konchong. For more specifics, you can read the candler blog’s review, but you would do better to just go see the film.

We began to discuss the positive critical reception of his film, though Mr. Baratz was quick to point out that not all viewers are pleased with his work. ” Some people want me to give answers, to give explanations, like more conventional documetaries. This is fair enough, but it’s not the film I made.“He’s right. Unmistaken Child features only sparse interviews with the main subject, Mr. Zopa, and a handful of overlayed text, giving the viewer the bare minimum of literal context. “People want me to criticize things, to go deeper. Most don’t even realize how much information there actually is in the piece, because I made this for Westerners, not Buddhists.” Read on…

With the mountains of Tibet as a setting, a group as elusive as the Buddhist monks who occupy that land as a subject, and a conceivably endless search for a reincarnated master as a mission, director Nati Baratz is given every opportunity to exploit this Eastern culture in his breakout documentary, Unmistaken Child. Thankfully, his sensibility is much more refined than that. Instead, Mr. Baratz and his team have crafted a thought-provoking, emotional journey of the highest regard.

Following the death of Geshe Lama Konchong in 2001, the master’s disciple for twenty-one years, Tenzin Zopa,  is charged with searching for the Lama’s reincarnation. Having lived in the service of Lama Konchong for twenty-one years, he is selected because it is believed that someone so close to the Lama will be able to recognize him even in the body of a child. This is a story of emotional redemption and religious discovery, but it is also a detective story. Tenzin has very few clues to go on, but that does not weaken his resolve as he heads to the Tsum Valley of Tibet to seek out his master in a new form. Read on…