Summer in Orange (5 Stars)

Dancer's Top Films #57

When I first watched this film in May 2013 I said it was the best film I'd ever seen. It knocked me off my feet as something truly different. After watching it a few times I've downgraded my judgement, as you can see by its relatively low position in my top 100 films list. This is mainly because I don't like what happens in the last 15 minutes, but it's still an excellent film.

The film is about a spiritual therapy centre set up by followers of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh in a small town in Bavaria. It's a comedy, with most of the humour coming from the culture clash. It's a film that viewers won't fully understand unless they're familiar with Bhagwan's Sannyasin cult, although it can still be enjoyed. I watched it with a friend who later described it as "hippies in Bavaria". That's not what it's about. The Sannyasin cult might look and act like hippies, but they're very different. I wrote about the main points of their teachings in my review of the documentary about two of Bhagwan's former followers. In particular, his cult later stockpiled weapons to defend themselves, which is something that hippies would never have done.

The film is fictional, but the portrayal of the cult is so accurate that there must have been advice from former members. It takes place in the golden era of the Sannyasin. From 1974 to 1981 everything seemed perfect. The members were naive and thought nothing would ever go wrong. It was in 1976 and 1977 that I had friends in the cult and visited some of their meetings. I never felt tempted to join them, but I learnt the main principles of their teachings. It's good that I didn't join them. In the 1980's (from 1981 onwards) everything fell apart.

The film's background is the religious cult in Bavaria, but it's about something that everyone can relate to. It's about Lili, a 12-year-old girl who wants to fit in. She goes to school and wants to make friends, but how can she be accepted when she wears orange clothes and a necklace with her guru's photo? She wants to be loved by her mother, but how can she be loved by a woman who puts her quest for spiritual enlightenment above the welfare of her children?

This film is unknown in other countries, because it's only been released in Germany. In Germany itself it's well known, because it's often shown on German television. The actress Amber Bongard, who plays Lili, is amazing. She was 13 when the film was made, and she puts on an amazing performance as the film's main character. I predicted a successful career for her, and I was right. She's now 23, and she's played many big roles in films and television series. Things can only get better for her.