Unmistaken Child Reviews

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5

Visually stunning and moving religious documentary that gives the outsider a rare eyewitness report on the four-year search for the rebirth of a Tibetan lama in Nepal.

Full Review | Original Score: A-

Along the way, we are treated to a tour of spiritual belief, Buddhist ceremony and rural life in this remote region.

Full Review

At once a compelling story and a meditative experience -- not something you'll find in Hollywood karma.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5

This documentary is only partly a story of the chosen one; mainly, and more intriguingly, it's a chronicle of the choosing one, of the nervous young monk charged with the job of leading the search party.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4

Films that address faith and love as eloquently as this moving 2008 documentary are rare.

Full Review

The film is fascinating on every level -- as a portrait of a willing servant in a complex, powerful and inscrutable religious system and a feast of spectacular sights and unusual mundane events in a corner of the world rarely exposed to prying eyes.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4

Even atheists may find their world rocked by Nati Baratz's Unmistaken Child.

| Original Score: 3.5/4

[Director] Baratz's access to every stage of the process -- from Zopa's selection of a candidate to the testing of that candidate to the blessing of the Dalai Lama himself -- is phenomenal, almost indescribably privileged.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4

You could argue that the film would be stronger if it explained more fully and asked more questions, yet "Unmistaken Child'' stands as a window on a beautiful and mysterious world. The questions it leaves hanging are for us to untangle.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4

Baratz's work may not be the slickest, but he took a risk and followed through under arduous conditions to let an audience share in a mystical journey. The film itself is an act of faith.

Full Review | Original Score: A-

Adorable, moving, bewildering, sad and, ultimately, peaceful.

Full Review

A compelling documentary about events that followed the 2001 death of the revered Tibetan master Geshe Lama Kochog.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4

A rare, intimate look at Tibetan Buddhists' search for the reincarnation of a deceased Lama, this beautifully filmed documetary is an extraordinary spiritual travelog, with all the dramatic elements of an exotic, enthralling fantasy

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5

A most intimate look at the recognition of a peasant child as a prophet. A masterpiece of understatement.

Full Review | Original Score: 8/10

Its privileged glimpse deep into unfamiliar spiritual territory has the strength of revelation.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5

Unmistaken Child stands above most others in offering us an intimate look at Tibetan Buddhism in action, with no external commentary or narration.

Full Review

Baratz's apparent willingness to accept everything at face value papers over some of the more troubling aspects of Tenzin's mission, but Unmistaken Child allows the mysteries of the process to be preserved without judgment.

Full Review | Original Score: B

The story unfolds in Israeli director Nati Baratz's intriguing, beautifully filmed documentary Unmistaken Child, which records Tenzin Zopa's search and its aftermath.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4

The documentary stands as a visually candid and picturesque peek into one of the world's most mysterious practices.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/6

Full Review