Wheel Of Time

Werner Herzog's documentaries were once just an interesting side-bar to an illustrious career in boldly visionary fiction films, but a recent string of excellent nonfiction features now comprise an exciting new phase in this always adventurous director's career. Among them is this mesmerizing look at the one of the most important events on the Buddhist calendar: the Kalachakra Initiation, a 12-day series of rituals that's held every two or three years in a locale of the Dalai Lama's choosing. In 2002, this eagerly anticipated event, which seeks to awaken the "seed of enlightenment" and draws an estimated half-million pilgrims, was held in Bodh Gaya, India, where, som...