Drawing on Buddhist history to weave a metaphor about the tragedy of Tibetans in exile, Little Buddha is Bernardo Bertolucci’s stunning follow-up to The Sheltering Sky.

In this religious tour-de-fource, a Buddhist monk, Lama Norbu (Ying Ruocheng), believes that a 10-year-old American boy, Jesse (Alex Wiesendanger), is the reincarnation of his spiritual teacher, Lama Dorje. Jesse’s father, Dean (Chris Isaak, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me), and mother, Lisa (Bridget Fonda, Jackie Brown), are skeptical, but following his business partner’s suicide, a transformed Dean relents and allows his son to travel to Bhutan. However, there are two other children whom the monk thinks may also be the reincarnation of Lama Dorje. Featuring Keanu Reeves as Siddhartha.

Director: Bernardo Bertolucci (France 1993) 123 min.