This film is a warm and compassionate exploration of the many facets of life for the renowned Tibetan Dzogchen teacher Chogyal Namkhai Norbu, as well as Yeshi, who not only has the burden of being the son of such a world-famous master, but the additional one of his own reincarnated legacy to navigate and embrace.
Most gratifying and quietly amazing is the graciousness of both father and son for allowing such close cinematic observation for so long. Twenty years of access to this family also allows for a view of impermanence, which subtly colors the events in the lives and attitudes of the principals. What a privilege, for filmmaker Jennifer Fox and for us, to be allowed to spend such a generous amount of time with them, and to get a sense of the fresh challenges which are imposed upon life when it is radically encompassed by Tibetan Buddhist worldviews. For an average person, encountering the possibility that your uncle has been reborn as your son, may well transform your conventional ideas about the meaning of family life into something new and unfamiliar... perhaps even liberating.
Some opportunities for glimpses into the nature of Tibetan Dzogchen could have served as a nice taste for cultivating an interest among some potential practitioners, but there is rather very little of it here to give a deep sense of what distinguishes its atiyoga qualities from, for example, Zen or even other aspects of Tibetan Buddhist practices. Indeed, it doesn't actually qualify (as Norbu himself has repeatedly said) as really being in itself a tradition per se, although the body of its instructional and inspirational texts do usually find a major repository within the Nyingma school. But that said, this is essentially a family drama first, with some dharma teachings appearing to provide commentary.
I found it interesting that, while Fox puts Yeshi up front as the more immediately sympathetic protagonist in the pair, the father has an outsized presence that necessarily requires some distancing, which results in a more ambiguous view of his character yet one which effectively helps preempt a superficial judgment of him on our part. In other words, our sympathies do not favor the son at the expense of the father, who is really a warm teacher with a great ability to transmit profound things. Also interestingly, the film's presentation doesn't seem to have prevented some confusion among Buddhist practitioners of other traditions who have seen it, and who have not found their own Buddhist practice, beliefs or general demeanor reflected in it.
In any case, for anyone interested in acquainting themselves with Dzogchen as taught by Norbu (and he quite a wonderful teacher), I would recommend starting with Dzogchen: The Self-Perfected State, which is not too advanced and gives a short helpful overview, with many clear points about the practice and its distinctions.