Zen & Zero
....but then Pat went and made a recommendation, and my sense of  the surf movie canon collapsed.? Pat suggested Zen & Zero, a film touted as a cinematic slice of pure Hunter  S. Thompson gonzo, but which seems to me to be a lot closer to Wim Wenders'  Buena Vista Social Club. It's about five Austrians - yes, Austrians - and  their surfari from California to Costa Rica, where they meet a slightly  dazed but eminently lucid Allan Weisbecker, the enigmatic author of In  Search of Captain Zero. En route they score some Puerto Escondido surf that  is is stirring as the film's (surely Ry Cooder inspired?) soundtrack, and  also run into an Austrian surfing legend whose attempt to introduce the  concept of "easy-going" to his countrymen was so successful that he decided  to emigrate to the Canary Islands.??There are great waves throughout, but  this is no ordinary surf movie. The film-makers co-opt Robert Musil, one of  the 20th century's more challenging writers, into their quest, for their  aim is "to research the myth of the surfer dude with what Musil called  'exactness in emotional matters'." In effect, they bring a European  sensibility of analysis and reflection to something which is often  characterised by its absolute non-engagement with introspection.? Is this a good thing? Or have they all smoked more weed than even  Weisbecker in his drug-smuggling former life???Well, I've just watched the  film for the second time. Its only flaw is that it's not long enough. It's  a mesmerising piece of cinema: - subtle, self-deprecating, inspiring and  even a little profound. I can't think of anything quite like it, save for  the similarly enriching Buena Vista. The music is as irresistible as the  left-handers of Pavones, and the cinematography a world away from a  run-of-the-mill gonzo flick. It'll have you heading for Costa Rica in no  time, and it'll make you think twice about writing off a surfer from a  land-locked country ever again.??But now I've got some thinking to do. Five  guys from Austria go and unlock the heart of stoke, and my surf movie canon  needs a reappraisal. Zen & Zero is up there with the best of 'em..... --LONDON TIMES (January 2007)If you ever needed reassurance that the rebel heart of surfing is  still beating strong under the slow strangulation of rampant mainstreaming,  this film is for you. Zen and Zero, which explores the ambiguous metaphors  of surfing through the dust-choked eyes of five transplanted Austrians on  the quintessential pig-latitude road-trip, swept Best Story and Best  Director at this year's X-Dance film festival and continues to garner  trophies on its international festival run. Employing a hardboiled Hunter  S. Thompson-esque narration style crossed with a driving,  surf-meets-Spaghetti-Western soundtrack (masterfully scored by Herwig  Maurer), this soulful 16mm film lets you ride shotgun on a 7,000-mile  surfing pilgrimage, complete with flat tires, Federales and happy buzzards  feasting on bloated road-kill. Paying tribute to Bruce Brown's 1960  classic, Surf Crazy, the crew of amiable Austrians journeys the length of  the Pan-American Highway from Los Angeles to Costa Rica in search of  Captain Zero and the zeitgeist of Dudeness.? Funded mostly on the  film-makers' credit cards, Zen and Zero is refreshingly free of gratuitous  logo shots and forced sponsored-rider antics, proving that surfing is not  so much about riding a wave as living on one. - Steve Barilotti --SURFER MAG  (Oktober 2006)Perhaps the best film in the category (TO THE MAXX)--and maybe one  of the true hidden treasures of the entire Santa Barbara Film Festival  2007--is "Zen and Zero", a gritty, melodic, surf-stuffed tale of five  Austrian surfers looking for philisophical enlightenment and waves on the  road from Los Angeles to where the road ends in Costa Rica. Made with a  shoestring budget and shot in 16mm, this movie has been taking festival  audiences by the storm for the last year. --SANTA BARBARA INDEPENDENT (January 2007)Zen and Zero??A film Michael Ginthor ??..We are like sailors who  unable to dismantle their ship in the safety of a dock must reconstruct it  on the open sea... Thus the philosopher Otto Neurath defines the  existential premise of Zen and Zero, and from it this rather shabby but  elegant noir opus sets its edge and glides languidly forward between a wave  of innocent early 21st century longing and a reef of seasoned European  nihilism.??..I always thought I was a surfer dude at heart,.. narrator  Michael Ginthor begins. ..Too bad I came from landlocked Austria... Ginthor  moved to L.A. but quickly realized that ..true dudeship lies  elsewhere...??This is a film in search of some true dudeship, as coauthors  and filmmakers Ginthor (director) and Philipp Manderla (producer) and three  pals (yep, five Austrians) head off south on a classic surf trip .. a.k.a.  a voyage of discovery. In this case a voyage of two discoveries. First,  they're looking for waves and surf enlightenment. Second, they've got in  mind a sort of guru: the novelist Allan Weisbecker, who lives and surfs at  the end of the road in Costa Rica. That's their Omega Point.  Witty,  philosophical, and narrated in noir style, the film (and the journey) is  peppered with dozens of pithy aphorisms that seem to mean something and  sometimes do. For instance: ..When the answer can't be put into words,  neither can the question.. and ..Looking for the Zero Moment when nature  exhibits its forces in their purest form... And, when Weisbecker finally  makes his appearance, just after they've surrendered their attachment to  finding him, he asks them: ..How do you describe a moment when there's  nothing going on in your head?..??Nice waves are had along the way at  Puerto and elsewhere, the cinematography of David Auerbach and is gritty  and excellent, and Steinitz'.. editing is nuanced and truly brilliant. The  film (which deals much with the mundane of travel) is buoyed and carried  along on original music by Herwig Mauer .. really fantastic.??Winner of  Best Story and Best Director at January..s X-Dance Festival, Zen and Zero  is a great ride .. but languid .. and almost reluctantly inspired. Sort of  the epitome of surfer style and .. maybe even .. true dudeship.??.. Drew  Kampion --SURFER'S PATH (Oktober 2006)