Popular Culture Inspirations

Hello Readers!

Whilst Rumi remains our greatest inspiration in designing the character as well as the story-line, we did seek inspiration from 21^st century works of cinema in order to make the piece more contemporary. The protagonist in our eyes is walking the path the mystic poet had walked centuries ago, yet the metamorphosis of an individual has remained constant in time. Thus, our project touches upon the raw human emotion that is as relevant as it had been in the times of Rumi.

Canadian film maker and meditation teacher Daniel Schmidt’s documentary film, Inner Worlds, Outer Worlds (2012) helped us delve into an individual’s personal enthusiasm for meditation and inner-peace amidst traumas as well as triumphs. The documentary drew on Schmidt’s own background in philosophy, his experience in the television, music and animation industries. The film incorporates footage of water vibration from German cymatics researcher Alexander Lauterwasser.

Similarly, Richard Linklater’s experimental, philosophical animated docufiction movie, Waking Life (2001) followed young man who wanders through a succession of dream-like realities wherein he encounters a series of individuals who engage in insightful philosophical discussions. This is an important piece for us to be able to differentiate between every human being’s escape from reality as our protagonist transports himself to a parallel universe that is happier albeit broken, and also to touch upon alienation as unlike Waking Life, Rumi’s Protégé centers an isolated young man. Whilst the journeys are same, the paths are individualistic.

Lastly, Linklater’s coming-of-age drama, Boyhood (2014) depicts the childhood and adolescence of Mason Evans Jr. (Coltrane) from ages six to eighteen as he grows up in Texas with divorced parents. Production began in 2001 and finished in 2013, with Linklater's goal to make a film about growing up. The project began without a completed script, with only basic plot points and the ending written initially which inspires us to leave our opening at a point where the remaining film intrigues the viewer enough to continue watching and exploring the expedition our protagonist’s set foot on.