Wheel of Time Movie Review

It's hard to get over the outright strangeness of a crusty director from Munich making a quiet film about the Kalachakra initiation of Buddhist monks in India, Tibet, and Austria. The centerpiece is the titular Wheel of Time, the intricate mural composed of sand carefully deposited on a large flat plane over the course of many days, only to be wiped away when it is completed. But Wheel of Time lacks the intensity of many of Herzog's works, and the meditative nature of the monks is a strange match for the wildness of Herzog. Ultimately their story comes out a bit muddled, focusing more on their obsession than their devotion.