Osel: a journey to infinity, review: the crazy story of the Andalusian boy mistaken for the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama

Osel Hita Torres looks at the camera and smiles. He declares himself an agnostic. He is also a man who has learned to live with the most singular of stories on his back. One that the four-part documentary Osel: A Journey to Infinity, directed by Lucas Figueroa for HBO Max, will attempt to recount. But there is no easy way to order a narrative that spans a time, a puzzling circumstance, and also a vision of faith. Nothing so called the Spanish Dalai Lama is simple much less easy to say.

Despite this, the documentary manages to do so with deep respect for what happened. In 1986, Osel became an unlikely minor celebrity. His parents handed him over to Lama Yeshe’s disciples after they were convinced that the child was his reincarnation. An unprecedented situation, which was all the rage at the time and also subjected the little boy to an inexplicable situation. Suddenly, after being the child of an ordinary couple, Osel was considered the youngest link in a long line of spiritual successors to an unknown.

On Osel: A Journey to Infinite Figueroa is careful not to pass judgment, and this is perhaps one of the most interesting points of the documentary. At first glance, the production is more interested in analyzing the impact of an event of such magnitude on the life of a child. Especially since the surrounding context immediately convinced him that what happened was a predestined event. Osel, now 37, shakes his head and, for the first time, takes the floor to evoke as he can the passage of an unparalleled adventure. Few people can boast of being a messiah, he jokes with the good humor that will accompany him in the long story of his life.

Osel: a journey to infinity

The documentary tells the puzzling story of this boy who thought he was the reincarnation of a Tibetan monk. A unique journey through beliefs, a look at the modern world and faith as we understand it today. Osel: A Journey to Infinity achieves this with elegance and a deep respect for what happened. In 1986, Osel became an unlikely minor celebrity. His parents handed him over to Lama Yeshe’s disciples after they were convinced that the child was his reincarnation. An unprecedented situation which caused a stir at the time, but which also subjected the little boy to an inexplicable situation.

From the Alpujarra to Tibet

Osel: A Journey to Infinity tells the story of Osel. At the age of six, the future Lama became the center of attention for a congregation of devotees. At the same time, he left behind the experience of childhood to wield the power of a dictator. At least that’s how he himself remembers the strange years of his upbringing at the hands of monks and trying to figure out what was going on.

I felt sold, he explains quietly, almost sadly. His parents, liberals and convinced of the mystical mandate, did not hesitate to hand over their son. From the Alpujarra, I have passed into another world, explains the one who, for more than a decade, has been a cultural rarity.

The idea of ​​holiness upset him, but over the years Osel came to understand that it was essentially a good thing. Osel: A Journey to Infinity is a journey through the experience of a cultural heritage that placed him at the center of a strange diatribe: was he really the chosen one, and was there a real possibility that he is the reincarnation of a Lama?

The amazing journey of Osel: a journey to infinity

Osel: a journey to infinity avoids speculation on subjects of an abstract nature and focuses on the experience of its protagonist. Specifically, it focuses on how the transition from ordinary Spanish boy to underage celebrity upended his childhood. But, beyond that, how it gave him the opportunity to grow up in an incredible environment.

In such extraordinary conditions that the documentary carefully avoids the yellow and the extravagant. Osel: A Journey to Infinity has a melancholy touch on childhood and the wonder of the possible. It is also a reflection on the roots of great beliefs and, ultimately, on the painful spaces in which they merge with daily life.

A Fugitive from Divinity

But beyond an experience he took decades to fully comprehend, Osel is a survivor. One of the weight of the pressure his supposed fate at the Gates has placed on his shoulders. In particular, the feeling of being a stranger everywhere. A creature alienated by mystical reverence that cut him off completely from the western world. At the end of the day, Osel escaped to Spain aged 18 but the documentary Osel: A Journey to Infinity isn’t so much about the extravagance of the anecdote as it is about what drove its protagonist to flee.

I am who I am, says Osel, who avoids answering the question of whether he considers himself the reincarnation of a lama or if he never believed it. The man he is instead considers the possibility of redeeming himself, of looking benevolently at the past. But, in particular, to assume that his life is a confluence of inexplicable circumstances. Sometimes chance does things well.

What the documentary tells with a careful distance. Obviously, Osel: A Journey to Infinity does not want to pass judgment on what happened, but allow Osel to tell his story. A wise decision that gives the production an air of confession with deep personal meaning.

Osel: A journey to infinity and its essential lessons

Figueroa connects the story of Osel: a journey to infinity with a sweet journey through the idea of ​​holiness. I wasn’t sure what was going on, but overall it was good, insists Osel. Of course, nothing is that simple, let alone idyllic. Little by little, the boy considered a future leader began to understand the flaws in his world. I understood that I was not the center of the world and it was a shock.

With precision and elegance, Osel: A Journey to Infinity tells an almost implausible story and gives it a familiar feel. Thanks to the recordings of Osel’s family, friends and even relatives, the story is filled with emotion and becomes more solid. In its final chapter, something becomes clear.

The documentary is a fascinating journey through an event that goes beyond simply understanding what is possible, but still human-related. In the end, we are all saints in one way or another, insists Osel, who, with just over three decades of life, understands the meaning of a simple truth. The world is in essence, we just have to discover it.