Ashram (1978)

This film is an absolutely unique historical document

In 1978 a German film maker visited the Ashram in Poona and created a unique film document about Osho, his Sannyasins and the ashram.

He was the first and only film maker whom Osho ever permitted to film inside the legendary encounter groups.

These pictures shocked the west.

Scenes like this had never been seen before: screaming naked men and women, fighting with each in other in a clumsy little room full of mattresses.

The prudish imagination of middle class couch potatoes went wild.

Significant numbers of celebrities had been visiting this exotic place in India and the tabloids had already labelled Osho as the “Sex-Guru” but nobody had ever seen what was really happening there.

This documentary created an outburst of emotion in the late 1970s and went deep into the common unconsciousness of western societies.

Even though it was the basis of the fanatic condemnation of Osho in the west, it also lead thousands of interested young people to Poona.

This film dominates public discussion to this day about Osho, spiritual search and group therapy.

It is an absolutely unique historical document.

88 min