A FEATURE DOCUMENTARY DIRECTED
BY GIULIO RICCIARELLI
The End of
Suffering
PRODUCED BY NAKED EYE FILMPRODUKTION:
MUNICH · BERLIN · FRANKFURT
Synopsis
Richard Baker Roshi, Zen master and abbot of two monasteries, has chosen Nicole Baden, a young German woman, to become his dharma heir and successor. Over one ceremonial weekend, the camera follows this rare transmission of spiritual authority, an intimate document of what it means to let go, to face suffering, and to awaken.
Director's Statement
"After a decade-long meditation practice and a deeply personal experience of loss and grief,
I have come to believe that an unexamined life is not worth living.
I have always felt that the human condition makes our existence uniquely challenging and beautiful."
— Giulio Ricciarelli, Director
The Subjects
Tatsudo Nicole Baden Roshi
ZEN MASTER · ABBOT, DHARMA SANGHA
Nicole Baden Roshi is a dharma heir of Richard Baker Roshi and has practiced with the Dharma Sangha since 2001. Trained at Crestone Mountain Zen Center, she formally assumed the role of Abbot in 2024 and now leads both the Dharma Sangha and the Dharma Academy. Her background spans psychology and somatic work.
Zentatsu Richard Baker Roshi
ZEN MASTER · FOUNDER, DHARMA SANGHA
Richard Baker Roshi is a dharma heir of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. He founded Zen centers in Crestone, Colorado and the Black Forest, Germany, and has been teaching for over five decades. He continues to guide students in person and through his online practice at the Dharma Academy.
Mood
Voices in the Film
Shungo Suzuki
ZEN PRIEST · RINSO‒IN TEMPLE, JAPAN
Shungo Suzuki is a Soto Zen priest and the resident director of Rinso-in, the 550-year-old family temple in Yaizu, Japan. Son of Hoitsu Suzuki Roshi and grandson of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, he embodies a living lineage that connects Japanese Zen roots to its Western descendants.
Hoitsu Suzuki
ZEN MASTER · ABBOT, RINSO‒IN TEMPLE
Hoitsu Suzuki Roshi is the abbot of Rinso-in and the son of the legendary Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. He held senior teaching positions at Eiheiji, the principal Soto Zen monastery in Japan, and continues to serve as senior advisor there. A rare bridge between Japanese Zen tradition and its global heirs.
Paul Rosenblum
ZEN MASTER · VICE ABBOT, DHARMA SANGHA
Paul Rosenblum Roshi began practicing with Shunryu Suzuki Roshi in 1968 and is a dharma heir of Richard Baker Roshi. He serves as Vice Abbot of the Zen Buddhist Center Black Forest and leads seminars across Germany, Austria, and beyond.
David Chadwick
ZEN PRIEST · WRITER & ARCHIVIST
David Chadwick (1945–2026) was ordained as a Zen priest in the lineage of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi and dedicated decades to documenting his teacher's life and teachings. His biography Crooked Cucumber remains the definitive account of Suzuki Roshi's life. Chadwick was interviewed for this film before his death in February 2026.
Vanja Palmers
ZEN MASTER · CO‒FOUNDER, PUREGG & FELSENTOR
Vanja Palmers trained for ten years at Tassajara Zen Monastery in California, where he received formal ordination as a Zen priest. With Brother David Steindl-Rast, he co-founded Puregg in Austria and Felsentor in Switzerland — both centres for contemplative practice and interfaith dialogue. His work integrates Zen practice, organic farming, and animal welfare.
Norman Fischer
ZEN MASTER · FOUNDER, EVERYDAY ZEN FOUNDATION
Norman Fischer is a Zen priest and poet who served as Co-Abbot of San Francisco Zen Center from 1995 to 2000. He is the founder and spiritual director of the Everyday Zen Foundation, dedicated to bringing Zen practice into Western life. He is also a prolific poet and writer.
Rocío Hernández
ZEN MASTER
Rocío Hernández Roshi is a dharma heir of Richard Baker Roshi and one of the pioneering voices in Zen's development in Latin America, practicing since the early 1970s under Ejo Takata Roshi in Mexico. She continues to teach and guide students internationally.
David Zimmerman
ZEN MASTER · CENTRAL ABBOT, SAN FRANCISCO ZEN CENTER
David Zimmerman has practiced Soto Zen since the early 1990s and has lived at San Francisco Zen Center since 1999. Ordained in the Shunryu Suzuki Roshi lineage, he received Dharma Transmission in 2018 and now serves as Central Abbot. He previously spent eight years as monastery director at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center.
Gisela Weischede
ZEN TEACHER · CO‒DIRECTOR, LEBENDIGES ZEN
Gisela Weischede has practiced in the tradition of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi and Richard Baker Roshi since the 1980s. Together with her husband Gerald, she helped build the Crestone Mountain Zen Center in 1988 and co-founded Lebendiges Zen in Göttingen, where she continues to teach.
Gerald Weischede
ZEN MASTER · PSYCHOTHERAPIST · CO‒DIRECTOR, LEBENDIGES ZEN
Gerald Weischede Roshi has been a student of Richard Baker Roshi since 1983 and is one of his dharma heirs. Founding Director of Crestone Mountain Zen Center (1987) and the Johanneshof Black Forest Center (1996), he now lives in Göttingen, practices as a psychotherapist, and leads Zen retreats across Germany alongside Gisela Weischede.
Sarabinh Levy-Brightman
EDUCATOR & CURRICULUM DEVELOPER
Sarabinh Levy-Brightman is a university educator and curriculum developer specialising in religious literacy and transformative learning. Affiliated with Harvard Divinity School and Harvard's Religion and Public Life initiative since 2016, her work brings together intellectual rigor and embodied practice.
Giulio Ricciarelli
DIRECTOR · CO‒FOUNDER, NAKED EYE FILMPRODUKTION
Giulio Ricciarelli is an Italian-born, Germany-based filmmaker and co-founder of Naked Eye Filmproduktion in Munich.
After training at the Otto Falckenberg School and building a career as a stage and television actor, he turned to directing with his 2014 feature Labyrinth of Lies — Germany's submission for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, picked up by Sony Pictures Classics at TIFF.
His short film Vincent won a Golden Sparrow in 2005 and was nominated for the European Film Award.
His approach to filmmaking is shaped by a decade-long personal meditation practice and a direct engagement with questions of loss, grief, and what it means to be present.
These are not abstract interests — they are the living material from which The End of Suffering is made.
Producers
Michaela Schultz
PRODUCER
Michaela Schultz is a Zen practitioner, graphic designer, and education researcher. Her observation that contemporary life with all its fractures and disorientation prompted a question: what does it look like to engage with the world honestly, without illusion and without withdrawal? That question became this film. As producer and initiator, she has shaped its direction from the first idea to the final cut with Giulio Ricciarelli as director and Christopher Leeson as producer, who brought the initial vision its distinct cinematic life. The team arrived at the same place: somewhere between testimony and inquiry.
Christopher Leeson
PRODUCER
Christopher Leeson is a producer working across documentary and drama in Canada and the UK, with credits for the BBC, ITV, CBC, and CTV. His work focuses on biographical and historical subjects with strong narrative drive. He received a Canadian Screen Award for the television drama Elijah. Leeson has been involved with The End of Suffering from an early stage, contributing to conceptual development, production organisation, and financing strategy.
Traei Tsai
PRODUCER
Traei Tsai is a Taiwanese-Canadian filmmaker, producer, and actress. She gained international recognition for her role in Corona, and her directing credits include Dogma (2024) and Infinite 8 (2022). Founder of Her Stories Untold and President of Her Journey Empowerment Society, her work focuses on marginalized voices, identity, and the bridge between Eastern and Western perspectives.
Credits