Cinema Review: Walk With Me


Posted January 2, 2018 in Cinema Reviews

Walk With Me 

Directors: Marc J Francis and Max Pugh 

Released: 5 January

In 1966 Zen Buddhist Master Thich Nhat Hanh was forced into exile following his efforts to bring about peace during the Vietnam War. He settled in France and established Plum Village, a monastery that is now of the world’s leading mindfulness practice centres.

Walk With Me, is a look inside the life of this community narrated by Benedict Cumberbatch with excepts from Hanh’s Fragrant Palm Leaves: Journals 1962-1966. It starts with a slow silent procession through a sun dappled woodland which should give you a good idea of the direction it takes for the next 80 minutes.

Walk With Me is a ruminative reflection on their lives as we bear witness to their quest to live in the present moment. “To live we must die every instant. We must perish again and again in the storms that make life possible”. A young monk stifles a yawn in what feels like the shattering of serenity. Peace pervades. 

About half an hour in, we witness a macbook and the changing of money as visitors to Plum Village come for enlightenment also. There is a dotey moment as Hahn explains to a little girl how her dead dog has been reincarnated. And then they turn up in New York and glide through the hustle and bustle and rants of a ‘Jesus is the only saviour’ person. And one monk revisits his parents and looks back at the map of his life he wrote out as a kid which included getting married at 26 and buying a million dollar home. And then we see them on the carousel of horses in a fairground and they radiate happiness in this moment.

This is the gentlest of trips – a balm for January souls.

Scorn not their simplicity.

Words: Michael McDermott

NEWSLETTER

The key to the city. Straight to your inbox. Sign up for our newsletter.

SEARCH

National Museum 2024 – English

NEWSLETTER

The key to the city. Straight to your inbox. Sign up for our newsletter.