White Crane Films

about us filmography distribution ongoing projects other activities buy dvds contact us
click to return to filmography index

The Reincarnation of Khensur Rinpoche
(1991, 50 mins, 16mm)

camera:  Andrew Carchrae
sound:  Ritu Sarin and Mic Shoring
editor:  Paul Shepard
narrated by:  Ian Holm
written by:  Tenzing Sonam
music:  Chaksampa and The Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts

produced and directed by Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam

-----------

Choenzey is a 47-year-old monk living in a Tibetan refugee monastery in South India. His spiritual master, Khensur Rinpoche, a revered high lama, has been dead for four years. According to Tibetan belief, he will soon be reincarnated. It is Choenzey's responsibility, as his closest disciple, to find the reincarnation and to look after him. The film follows Choenzey's search and his eventual discovery of an impish but gentle 4-year-old boy who is recognized by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan State Oracle to be the reincarnation. Without sentimentality, the film captures the moving relationship that develops between the erstwhile disciple and his young master.

-----------

"Before the shooting of Little Buddha I saw a movie called The Reincarnation of Khensur Rinpoche, directed by Tenzing Sonam and Ritu Sarin, a beautiful documentary about a monk who goes to Tibet, smuggles a child out of Tibet, takes him to the Dalai Lama and the oracle, and is told — Yes, this is the reincarnation of your master."
Bernardo Bertolucci, Sight and Sound, April 1994

"Joyful and gentle and spooky."
The Guardian, December 30, 1991

"What makes this film so compelling is that as much as it's a poignant document of the Tibetan diaspora, it's also a portrait of fatherhood..."
The Village Voice, October 22, 1991

-----------

Broadcasts: 
NRK (Norway); BBC (UK); (Canal +) France; ABC (Australia);
TV2 (Denmark); YLE (Finland); SVT (Sweden); RTSI (Switzerland); ision TV (Canada); Odyssey (USA); Fuji TV (Japan); RAI (Italy); BR (Germany), Estonian TV (Estonia); South Korea

Film Festivals: 
Association for Asian Studies Conference, San Diego, 2000
Bombay International Film Festival for Documentary, Short & Animation Films, 1992
Cinema du Rèel, Paris, 1992
Wellington/Auckland International Film Festivals, 1992
Galway Film Fleadh, 1992
6th Paarnu International Visual Anthropology Festival 1992, Best Film About Youth
Royal Anthropological Institute International Festival of Ethnographic Film, Manchester, 1992
Margaret Mead Film Festival, New York, 1992
37th Cork Film Festival 1992
Amsterdam International Documentary Festival, 1992

Theatrical Release:
35mm cinema release in Germany, Austria and Switzerland;
16mm release in the major cities of the USA

Screenings:
Anthology Film Archives, New York
The Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), London
National Film Theatre, London
Kino Xenix, Zurich
Glasgow Film Theatre, Glasgow
Cinema City, Norwich