On November 11, 2005, Fox Searchlight released the film Bee Season in the
U.S.. The film, which is based on the 2001 novel by Myla Goldberg, stars Hollywood veterans Richard Gere and Juliette Binoche. The story focuses
on Saul Naumann (Gere), a Jewish religious scholar who attempts to mold
his daughter Eliza (Flora Cross) into a Kabbalah prodigy when he discovers
she has an uncanny ability to spell. At the same time, Saul’s son Aaron
(played by Max Minghella) embarks on a spiritual quest which culminates in
his joining the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON),
popularly known as the Hare Krishna movement.
Thefilmmakers consulted with ISKCON members in Berkeley, California, and
featured several practicing devotees in a scene depicting a Krishna
worship service.
On behalf of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, we
appreciate the filmmaker’s sincere efforts to accurately depict the Hare
Krishna movement. At the same time, we are concerned that, despite those
efforts, viewers and members of the media may misinterpret some of Aaron’s
actions to be representative of ISKCON policies or beliefs.
In the film, Aaron deceives his parents and
surreptitiously stays at the Hare Krishna temple; in real life, ISKCON
maintains a rigid policy that requires minors to provide written parental
consent before they may stay at a temple. Interfering between a child and
his or her parents, no matter how eager the child is to take up Krishna
practices, is unacceptable and strictly prohibited. Unlike virtually all
of the Krishna devotee characters depicted in the film, most ISKCON
members today do not live as monks and nuns within temples. Along with
their families, they live, work, and go to school in the general
community, practicing Krishna consciousness in their homes and attending
services at the temple on a regular basis.
Bee Season raises important questions about family obligation, personal
choice, control, understanding, acceptance, and religious pluralism. The
film does so while examining two popular, but often misunderstood,
religious traditions: Kabbalah and Hare Krishna. We hope that audiences
will appreciate the complexity of these questions, and will take the
opportunity to learn more about religious traditions that may be different
from their own.
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