Little Buddha
Opens July 18, 2025
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-force, 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), and mother, Lisa (Bridget Fonda), 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.
- Director: Bernardo Bertolucci
- Principal Cast: Keanu Reeves, Ying Ruocheng, Chris Isaak, Alex Wiesendanger, Bridget Fonda
- Country: France, United Kingdom
- Year: 1993
- Running Time: 141 min.
- Producer: Jeremy Thomas
- Screenplay: Rudy Wurlitzer, Mark Peploe
- Cinematographers: Vittorio Storaro
- Editors: Pietro Scalia
- Music: Ryuichi Sakamoto
- Language: English