Walk with Me (2017)

Directed by: Marc J. Francis, Max Pugh | 94 minutes | documentary | With: Thich Nhat Hanh | Narrator: Benedict Cumberbatch

A little Buddhist is familiar with the life and work of Thich Nhat Hanh. A little non-Buddhist has no idea who the good man is and what he stands for. Well, Thich Nhat Hanh is a Vietnamese monk who founded the Plum Village Buddhist community in 1982 in the hilly countryside near Bordeaux. From Plum Village he bombarded the world with his writings, mostly on applied Buddhism, sometimes on other Buddhist or secular subjects.

In the documentary ‘Walk with Me’ we meet the monks of Plum Village. We observe the quiet monastic life, mingle with the lay people who go on a summer retreat and we go on a short Buddhist tour of the United States. We experience the rituals, listen to the singing and enjoy the childish pleasures that the monks experience on their American tour.

‘Walk with Me’ struggles with the eternal problem of documentaries about Buddhism: the time span. It is always too long or too short. Too short to expose the complex structure of Buddhist philosophy, too long to just look at rituals, which without further knowledge come across as meaningless and vague.

‘Walk with Me’ solves this problem in a nice way. What the beautiful statues, the captivating chants and the interaction with retreaters and prisoners show is not the Buddhist philosophy but the Buddhist mindset. Cheerful, tolerant, egoless and loving. With the peaceful atmosphere of monastic life as a leitmotif.

For viewers who are at home in Buddhism, the film offers little new. But they will also enjoy the beautiful singing, the tranquil nature and the detachment from the material. A little too much of a good thing are the lyrics by Thich Nhat Hanh, recited by British actor Benedict Cumberbatch. Those texts are too mystical to really add anything. Moreover, they are too far removed from the clear prose that the Vietnamese are known for.

‘Walk with Me’ (named after walking meditation) is a documentary as a long purifying meditation. Those who are tired of the headlines of Trump, Putin and other world leaders would do well to see the face of one of the spiritual leaders of the 21st century. And to realize that somewhere in this earthly vale of tears a real paradise is hidden.