“The Truth Is Unbelievable“

 

(… and the false myth of a better tomorrow) is a documentary film on Bhikkhu Sumedha, his reflections on beauty and art, on the wisdom of Theravada Buddhist thought in the light of modernity.

 

The film – shot shortly before his death in the ancient cave Manapadassanalena in Sri Lanka , where the monk lived the last 26 years of his life.

directed and photographed by Cora de Lang.

( © Ven. Mettavihari, Cora de Lang, Richard Lang).

With the footage- material re-edited several times, the film was eventually  compiled in Nov.2008 to a  length of 52: 50 min..

 

As an artist, a  Swiss citizen with German passport, Aya Iskander Schmidlin went to Sri Lanka in 1971 and stood there up to the end of his life. He became an arguably famous monk who never stopped being a painter, a very special one, indeed.

 

On the day of our visit to the cave, the day the footage for the video was shot, Bhikkhu Sumedha had made an art installation in, around and out of his cave. 6 months after his death the exhibition dedicated to his art, curated by Cora de Lang in Colombo in 2007 resembled to a great extend the spirit of that installation of art.