I initially did not use to watch documentaries that much, since I used to feel that they miss the fun. But, this is yet another one that proves me wrong.
The movie is about the searching for Ryan Chambers, a young man from Mount Gambier in South Australia who disappeared in India in 2005 when he was 21. In many ways Ryan was a typical free spirited young Aussie heading off to explore the world, and India was his choice. He travelled together with his best friend John, and everything seemed to be okay until two months into their journey when they reached the ancient city of Rishikesh. A few days after they arrived, Ryan walked out of the ashram they were staying at, at 5 am and never came back. He was barefoot, wearing just a pair of shorts, he had no passport on him, no phone, no money. The only clue he left behind was a cryptic last message he put in his diary - "If I'm gone, I'm not dead. I need to free minds, but first I had to free my own." I have to reveal that this road movie is not so much about Ryan but rather about his parents Di and Jock who decide to return to India six years after he had disappeared and continue the search. The film is a very affecting and beautiful portrait of these two ordinary, middle-class people who with incredible patience hunt for their youngest son, knowing that this may be their last search. We watch them throw themselves into the country of 1,2 billion people and thousands of Gods and ashrams, travelling from one place to another, hanging on to their resilience and a belief that Ryan is still alive. And the further and deeper they search for him the more they confront their Western worldviews, which start to fade while the spiritual values and standards of the land of Gods take over.
I was also very struck by the picture of India the film paints. Loved the way the sound was used to accentuate the cultural differences between the "two worlds". I lived in Delhi for a while in my 20s, and for me the film really captures the incredible mix of confronting, funny, terrible things, which are somehow part of everyday life in India. This is well worth a viewing.