Buddha's Little Finger (film)

Buddha's Little Finger is a 2015 Russian comedy-drama film directed by Tony Pemberton. The film is based on the novel of the same name by Victor Pelevin, published in 1996 (original title: Чапаев и Пустота, Chapaev i Pustota).

The film explores themes of reality, identity, and perception through the intertwined stories of Pyotr, a mental patient in post-Soviet Russia, who believes he is both a poet living in the 1990s and a Red Army soldier fighting in the Russian Civil War alongside the legendary Vasily Chapayev. The narrative blurs the lines between these two realities, leaving the audience to question which, if either, is the true one. The film delves into philosophical concepts relating to Buddhism and the nature of consciousness, reflecting the themes present in Pelevin's novel. The film features a surreal and often dreamlike visual style to further enhance the ambiguous and mind-bending narrative.