The international trailer for Walk With Me, a forthcoming documentary about the revered Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh and his Plum Village monastic community was released last week offering a glimpse into the first film about one of the world’s most influential contemporary Buddhist masters and the monastic community he established in rural France.

Due to be released internationally in 2017, the filmmakers describe Walk With Me as “a meditative and intimate insight into a community of Buddhist monks and nuns who have given up all their possessions, left their homes, and parted with their life savings for one common purpose—to practice of the art of mindfulness and the teachings of the world-renowned Zen Buddhist Master Thich Nhat Hanh.” (Official website)

Directed and produced by Marc J. Francis and Max Pugh, Walk With Me is narrated by Benedict Cumberbatch, the Emmy Award winner of Britain’s Sherlock television series and Oscar-nominee for The Imitation Game (2014), who reveals, “In my life I’ve been so touched by the teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh. It was a great honor to work on Walk With Me. I have no doubt that audiences across the world will be moved by this beautifully crafted film.” (Variety). 

Four years ago, the disciples of Thich Nhat Hanh invited filmmakers Pugh and Francis into their monastic community in France to observe their Buddhist practice and the essence of their approach to mindful living. The filmmakers were subsequently given access to the spiritual lives of the monks and nuns of Plum Village, and traveled with Thich Nhat Hanh and his disciples to Vancouver, Mississippi, New York, Washington, San Diego, and London. The film offers a rare insight into why the monks and the nuns decided to leave their families and secular life behind to follow in his footsteps.

“Taking our time with the film process has allowed for the chance to develop a cinematic ‘language’ capable of communicating the actual practice of a life lived differently and mindfully,” said Pugh and Francis. “We have worked to create an immersive film to plunge the audience deep into the poetry of the present moment, a feeling so elusive in the reality of the daily grind.”

Two-time Oscar-winning film director Alejandro G. Inarritu (The Revenant (2015), Amores perros (2000)) describes the documentary as “a moving and wonderful film that captures the essence, depth, and the poetry of Thich Nhat Hanh—a great work full of love.” (PanARMENIAN Network)

Thich Nhat Hanh is a Vietnamese Buddhist monk, meditation master, human rights activist, poet, and author of more than 100 books, including the bestselling The Miracle of Mindfulness, a manual on meditation. In 1967, Martin Luther King, Jr. nominated Thich Nhat Hanh for the Nobel Prize. Considered by many to be the second most influential Buddhist leader in the West after the His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the Zen master was a recipient of the Courage of Conscience Award in 1991 for promoting peace and non-violence.

See more

The life of famed Vietnamese Buddhist Thich Nhat Hanh: First look at ‘Walk With Me’ (VnExpress)
Benedict Cumberbatch-narrated mindfulness film “Walk With Me” trailer (PanARMENIAN Network)
WestEnd Boards Benedict Cumberbatch-Narrated Mindfulness Film ‘Walk With Me,’ Releases Trailer (EXCLUSIVE) (Variety)
Benedict Cumberbatch boards Buddhism doc (Screen Daily)
Walk With Me the Movie (Plum Village)
Thich Nhat Hanh (Plum Village)
Walk With Me (Official website)

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