A documentary about a young woman who tells of how she found her spiritual home in a monastery in Thailand. Her Burmese guru gives her a friendly alter ego, Aba, to act as her spiritual guide. Then Aba is replaced by Martin, a new guide, and Martin turns out to be anything but friendly. His presence is sexually loaded even though the young woman denies having any sexual needs. He abuses her and forces her to live in a world of sadism. He forbids her to eat and leaves her locked up in a coffin for eight hours to struggle with death. Then he suddenly appears to her in a white doctor's coat. She is given medicine and after a time the diabolic nightmare dissolves into a clear white light that makes her feel cleansed. Martin is past tense; she sees herself now as a medium. Martin lived through her and abused her spiritually. She worked on this documentary because she wants the world to know that there is more to the spiritual world than only love and goodness. The documentary's narrative contrasts disquietingly with the images. Serene images of the young woman meditating suggest peace and enlightenment. Her tale, a narrative monologue that she relates unemotionally, is full of inner terror. The ambiguousness of the tale gradually becomes clear: is this a matter of clinical psychosis and its compulsory treatment or of the kind of hallucinations that can be part of the search on the path to spirituality? Does the principal character know the difference? This work, seemingly a documentary, is not the first work by Komen and Murphy that takes place at an indescribable border between the inner and outer worlds, and here again they make use of one of their intimate family stories.
- Marianne Brouwer
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Pim Komen ° 1964 Leeuwarden, Netherlands
Karen Murphy ° 1968 Waterford, Ireland
Live and work in Amsterdam, Netherlands
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