Meetings with Remarkable Men

Based on the autobiographical book of the same name, Peter Brooks' Meetings With Remarkable Men is the story of the early years of Russian philosopher and magician George Gurdjieff and the people that led him to become a spiritual seeker and an inspiration to devoted followers around the world. Filmed in the mountains and deserts of Afghanistan, a Russian Prince (Terrence Stamp) directs Gurdjieff (Dragan Maksimovic) and a group of seekers to search for the teachings of an ancient Russian brotherhood called the Sarmound. The adventure leads them through the Gobi Desert and the Himalayas to a monastery where Gurdjieff learns self-expression through dancing and body movement, a technique he taught his followers many years later.

If enlightenment means anything, it means to "lighten up", but this bio-pic of Gurdjieff's coming of age is heavy and significant, reducing the life of a man of exuberance to ponderous banality. The characters walk zombie-like through their lines, never allowing any hint of joy in being alive and the stilted dialogue sounds like a cross between the spiritual kitsch of Lost Horizon and Star Wars. Filming this outstanding book, I'm afraid, requires a visionary who is able to convey its meaning with suggestion, poetry, and a touch of cinematic magic -- sadly lacking here.

Meetings with Remarkable Men is the adaptation of part of the autobiography of George Gurdjieff, a mystic who lived between the 2nd half of the 19th century and the 1st half of the 20th century.

The movie is more like a docudrama, about his travels from central asia to Egypt, and back to central Asia once again in a pursuit for knowledge about the purpose of life and existence, and the movie focuses on the time span between his teenage years back in Georgia to his early adulthood and the discovery of the secret place of the Sarmoung Brotherhood.

The movie was well produced, and its purpose was not to tell a story as much as to enlighten those who are willing to receive the knowledge, which is why I gave it a full score.

We do not have the opportunity in our days to discover hidden powers within our soul which will enable us to have a worthy living, as real human beings. It means that there are other things, apart from the everyday cares, which start to be visible, if you really come to really understand the meaning of the movie and not superficially looking at it as movie entertainment or out of curiosity. Also, it makes us more open minded to understand and look the differences between people both in the way of life and personal characteristics. We usually dislike what we are not accustomed to, without paying attention to the fact that embracing differences in a positive way, we enlarge and enrich our soul.

Not a movie for everybody. Hidden here, by Gurdjieff's greatest student, Mme.Jean de Salzmann, are real questions for people who find themselves, willy-nilly, searching. What is miraculous? How can a child be educated so as not to kill them (inside) by the age of 6? What is a real sacrifice? There are even glimpses of sacred dances, done by Gurdjieff's pupils after decades of practice. Not a "feel-good" movie, but a "feel more" movie.

It is unusual to even see a film being made about this kind of subject matter. Gurdjieff is an important figure in the history of religion, and this film is interesting in that it not only has a performance by Terrance Stamp in it, but also the fact that the Sufi dancing in it is authentic, as far as I am aware. Also, as far as I am aware, this is the only time that anyone in the outside world has ever been allowed to observe this form of sacred dance that the Sufis have been using for thousands of years. Additionally, the meetings that he has with some of the individuals who are spiritually advanced are handled intelligently and realistically. A must for anyone on the spiritual path.