All we need is love; at least that’s what The Beatles told us. We believed them for a while, but in a materialistic, image-obsessed world like the one we live in, is love truly all we need? That’s what Orlando von Einsiedel’s latest documentary, The Cycle of Love, is trying to tell us.
Despite being a documentary, it sounds like it’s a fairy tale, or a story out of the One Thousand and One Nights textbook. In 1977, PK Mahanandia, a 23-year-old Indian artist, decides to travel across the universe to find a woman he believed was his destiny, a woman he met only once during her brief visit to India. The woman’s name is Lotta Von Schedvin, and she’s Swedish. But to PK, she is the love of his life. There’s something particular about PK. He belongs to a subset of human society, a caste portion of Indian society called the “untouchables,” who face extreme discrimination due to traditional Hindu belief systems related to rituals and hereditary superiority. Von Einsiedel doesn’t shy away from this sensitive topic, allowing PK to express his pain and torment from the bigotry faced by this unfair societal caste system. It layers the documentary and creates a way to connect with the subject and understand what goes beyond the impressive, picturesque expedition that he took across the universe to find love.
Since PK didn’t have the tools back then to document his 6000-mile bike journey to find his beloved across continents in a proper, movie-worthy way, the filmmaker decided to cast two young actors to play his younger self and Lotta’s younger self. Ditching the conventions of the verité narrative style and the extensive interview stages, Chirag Lobo, who plays young PK, the filmmaker, producer and PK himself, embarked on a journey similar to PK’s, allowing the story to flow naturally and symbiotically, with actual interactions with people driving the storytelling and creating a story within a story.
Archival material of the real people who comprise this magical tale is found and used throughout, of course, including extensive interviews with Lotta and PK, but it’s the fictionalized version of the trip that gives weight to this enchanting movie-watching experience. If not for the fictionalized versions of the two young lovers recreating the epic tale, the documentary would’ve become just another source of recorded existing footage about a romantic traveler.
There are many dimensions to this multidimensional story. Foremost, it’s love. In a world divided by greed, corruption, and power prejudice, where political leaders incite discrimination and violence, we have a movie about a man who owns nothing, traveling all over the world to find a woman. One woman and no one else but her. In an image-obsessed world where dating is casual and love is disposable, but also where many barriers stand in the way of true love uniting, this documentary is a life raft for those seeking authenticity, truth, and listening to their hearts. But The Cycle of Love is also a love letter to cyclists all over the world, especially bike tourists, those who pack whatever few things they have in their backpacks and roam the universe.
As someone who once thought she had a shot at intergalactic romance, with someone promising to travel the world to find her (but never acting on that promise), I truly envy Lotta. What woman doesn’t want the man who loves her to travel all over the world, bow at her knees, and profess his eternal love? The Cycle of Love is about what happens when the impossible is fact, not fiction, and that the most beautiful fairy tales exist in real life, not in movies.
The Cycle of Love is now playing in select theaters. You can find a full list of theaters here.
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The Cycle of Love is about what happens when the impossible is fact, not fiction, and that the most beautiful fairy tales exist in real life, not in movies.
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Jaylan Salah Salman is an Egyptian poet, translator, and film critic for InSession Film, Geek Vibes Nation, and Moviejawn. She has published two poetry collections and translated fourteen books for International Languages House publishing company. She began her first web series on YouTube, “The JayDays,” where she comments on films and other daily life antics. On her free days, she searches for recipes to cook while reviewing movies.
