Zen for Nothing

What a beautiful film! The photography and soundscape is just like it should be. The movie reminded me of "Into great silence" and is for sure inspired by it. Sabine Timoteo, main protagonist of the film, is always a delight to look at but her dialogue! This is the one point I don't give to the film because it made me wince a few times. Anyhow: Strongly recommended.

I couldn't finish the movie, way too slow. It was half-way through the movie, and there was pretty much zero story development until then. I'm fine with slow movies, they just have to tell something in between, either with images, emotions, music, ... I think this movie tried to do that, but, IMHO didn't achieve it. What I liked: the zen-like Japanese voice over messages.

The movie tries to capture the atmosphere of daily life in a Zen monastery and does so really brilliantly. I have seen quite a few documentaries about Zen/buddhism over the years, but this is probably the best I've ever seen (for me personally). Watching it, I really got dragged into the monastery with them, and reached total peace of mind and stillness, as if I was having one of these blessed meditations where you're totally in the zone. What an impact. There is no commentator, the camera just follows the spiritual practice of a Swiss woman called Sabine Timoteo. Filmed extremely beautifully, it really is photography in motion. You could easily pick a selection of shots from the movie and have an exhibition. Of course there is no story development, the spiritual process is leading you nowhere, it takes you out of the story, that's the whole point! So if the spiritual process is just not your thing, and you expect a 'normal movie' where stuff happens, you should probably skip this one.