"Koan"

French Title: "Koan"

Genre: spiritual tale / coming-of-age story
Circa: 17th Century
Main Location: Japan
Duration: 1h 30 min
Format: 35mm
Estimated Budget: 1 millions USD

This film project is copyrighted and protected under international laws.

Project outline:

Taking place in a buddhist monastery in Japan, on the 17th century, the film consists in a series of Zen enigmas (called "Koan") upon which a promising young monk has to meditate during his special training with an eccentric Zen Master.

A "Koan" is a short sentence, a brief story, an enigmatic question or a riddle that a Zen Master submits to his disciple in order to trigger in his mind a direct understanding of his teachings, beyond intellectual reasoning. More than just a mental exercice, a "Koan" is considered in Japanese and Chinese Buddhism as a powerful tool of interior transformation, able to cause the spiritual enlightenment of the disciple, the ultimate awakening.

A famous "Koan" is, "Two hands clap and there is a sound; what is the sound of one hand?".

A "Koan" generally contains aspects that are inaccessible to rational understanding, yet that may be accessible to intuition.

"Koans" originate in the sayings and doings of sages and legendary figures in Zen history. "Koans" are said to reflect the enlightened or awakened state of such persons, and sometimes said to confound the habit of discursive thought or shock the mind into awareness. Zen Masters often recite and comment on "Koans", and some Zen practitioners concentrate on"Koans" during meditation. Teachers may probe such students about their "Koan" practice using "checking questions" to validate an experience of insight or awakening. Responses by students have included actions or gestures, "capping phrases", and verses inspired by the "Koan".

Less formally, the term "Koan" sometimes refers to any experience or situation that can accompany awakening or spiritual insight.

Pitch/synopsis:

Japan , 17th Century. Ekoto is abandoned at his birth by his parents, some poor farmers living in misery. Left alone at the gate of a buddhist monastery, "The Gateless Gate", Ekoto is discovered by Shoshinbo, a Zen Master, who decides to adopt him like his own son and raise him in the monastery. An introspective and self-contained child, Ekoto grows up in a peaceful environment, developing a natural taste for meditation. At 8, he becomes himself a monk and begins his formal education in Zen Buddhism under the guidance of Shoshinbo, now his Master. A brilliant student, Ekoto quickly distinguishes himself from the other monks by his extraordinary capacity of concentration and his virtues of patience and self-discipline. Surpassing everyone, at 18, he is then chosen by Shoshinbo to be his first disciple, an honorific rank that is normally reserved to older disciples. Sparking the jealousy of many monks, Ekoto becomes the innocent victim of many shameful humiliations and unfair treatments. To preserve him, his Master, Shoshinbo, decides to send him far away to his own Master, Gudo, an old ermit that lives on the top of a mountain in a little hut. Gudo, who meditates in isolation for more than 20 years, has the reputation to be an eccentric monk, a bit lunatic. Conforming to Shoshinbo's intructions, Ekoto unwillingly accepts to leave the monastery and travels alone through the mountains to meet and stay with Gudo. At his contact, Ekoto is suddenly confronted to a new approach of Zen, rather unconventional, in which all situations, gestures, actions and words are a "Koan" submitted to the disciple by the Master, a living enigma aiming at liberating Ekoto's mind from all conditionings and habitual patterns...

Author's comments:

"Koan" is a low-budget film which needs only a few actors and uses limited settings.

Among other themes, the film, 'Koan", explores the relation between Master and Disciple and the notion of spiritual transmission. More specifically, the film questions the validity of a spiritual initiation taking place outside institutionalized structures, departing from a recognized, conventional, or established norm or pattern. "Koan" illustrates an unusual tradition of wisdom that teaches and guides through non-conventional ways and methods. Often, this type of transmission occured during a spiritual pilgrimage which consists for the disciple in visiting one or several Masters that live in a monastery or alone as ermits. The purpose of his visits: finding someone able to wake him up brutally from his state of ignorance, an accomplished Zen Master able to provoke his sudden enlightenment by a word, a question or a simple gesture.

To get further information on "Koan" film project, obtain the final script (in English or in French), take part in the production or join the cast, please feel free to contact me. Thank you.

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