Some say that the best way to find your inner peace is through meditation. It is accurate, and from year to year, there are more and more believers in this method of finding the perfect balance. In ‘Enter Nirvana’, a woman, played by Lindsay Bennett-Thompson, who is also the director, goes to a meditation retreat. The instructor comes and greets her with an open heart, but one can see that she is not ok. Her eyes are lost, her face has scars, and there seems to be a problem that she cannot talk about without having the right incentive. She gets in position with the other course takers, and she starts meditating. Trying to find her happy inner place, she goes through different places: she sits by the shore of the sea, then she is in front of a building, then she goes inside with a particular purpose. She is free, and in that specific situation, she is in control. There is nothing that can intervene in her actions, and she seems to be walking on a fragile line between what is wrong and what is right. And straight after that, a decision is made.
Lindsay Bennett-Thompson’s experimental is surprising for us given that it goes on a path that we know very little about, and on this occasion we get to be more aware. Whoever does not know how mediation works should watch this movie just for the mechanics of the process, if not for the outcome. Secondly, Thompson’s acting is top class, and we are delighted to have projects of this kind on our hands. She goes from victim to punisher with such great ease that there is nothing stopping her from going even beyond that.
The black water covering her submerged face is a compelling metaphor that talks about the power of containing yourself. While it proves to be too hard to do so in the presented situation, the woman tries to find a middle ground, but the struggle seems to be in vain. ‘Enter Nirvana’ is not a tutorial on how to meditate, but it gives you several right answers to the simple question of ‘What next?’
Written by Vlad A.G