Excerpt from:

The Sacred Union (2018)

Single Channel HD Video

Running Time: 17:05

The Sacred Union is a narrative about the artist, archaeologist, writer and theosophist Nicholas Roerich. The video focuses on a period of Roerich’s life in which he pursued a utopian project he referred to as the Sacred Union of the East. His aim was to recruit Buddhist masses to join his spiritual commonwealth under Bolshevik Russia. As the protagonist travels through various landscapes of Mongolia, his external appearance is slowly transforming to illustrate the true intent of his mission. Initially, his outer appearance seems to indicate that he is pursuing a spiritual journey aligned with Tibetan Buddhist pursuits. As the journey unfolds, we see that his real allegiance is to Bolshevik Russia. The Sacred Union highlights a figure who simultaneously strives to unite cultures including America, Buddhist Asia, Bolshevik Russia and India while also strengthening their divisions as a result of his disingenuous rhetoric.