The film begins in 1938 in Bucharest, Romania. Dominic (Tim Roth) is a 70-year-old linguistics scholar who, failing to complete his life's work, plans on committing suicide. Walking across a street, he is struck by lightning and miraculously survives.

Some time ago I made an intense study of the effects of being struck by lightning since reading the complete works of Martin Luther and learning about Lightning Shamans. Luther's sudden conversion had a profound effect on Western history and the Catholic Church. Luther was preparing to become a lawyer. On July 2, 1505, in a field on the way to the university, Luther was caught in a terrible thunderstorm. He was struck by lightning and thrown to the ground. Luther's companion was killed at his side. Close to death, he cried out: "Help me, St. Anne; I will become a monk." We all now what happened after that.

In an attempt to explain away the miraculous nature of St. Paul's sudden conversion on the road to Damascus, a scientific paper proposed that St. Paul was struck by lightning. The prevalent symptoms in lightning injuries are tinnitus, blindness, confusion, amnesia, cardiac arrhythmias, and vascular instability. Severe damage to the central nervous system and extensive burns are commonplace.

But not a voice from Heaven.

Ancient people, living predominately outdoors, would have recognized the signs of lightning injuries. Paul staked his legitimacy to apostleship (ranking himself alongside the apostles) by declaring it came directly from Jesus. Not from a sun flare. Not from a bolt of lightning.

However, if Paul had survived a lightning strike, it would have been considered an amazing feat of good fortune. People do survive lightning strikes, and there would have been no need for Paul to attribute his survival to the generosity of a crucified prophet.

The ancient Greeks believed a person struck by lightning possessed magical powers. Throughout the world in tribal cultures, Lightning Shamans (shamans who have been struck more than once) are revered and feared as the mightiest of shamans.

Lightning injuries affect 800 to 1000 persons per year in the U.S.; and there are estimated 1000 fatalities worldwide each year. The physical problems associated with lightning injuries are serious and often life-long. Yet, a few people do attribute their awakened psychic abilities to being struck by lightning. In 1959, Brazilian twelve year old Thomaz Morais was stuck by lightning. Soon after, Morais developed paranormal gifts, which increased as he grew older. Today, Morais is a healer, psychic surgeon and, most astonishingly, has ability to materialize objects.

Dominic, completely bandaged due to the severe condition of his burned body, begins to show signs of awareness. Soon he baffles not only his doctor, Professor Stanciulescu (Bruno Ganz), but the entire country, by quickly recovering and growing younger.

His subconscious physically materializes another more sinister Dominic, as his mentor and nemesis. The Nazis become interested in studying Dominic and use a spy, the Woman In Room 6 (Alexandra Pirici), representing Eve, The Whore of Babylon and Madonna, as an instrument to seduce him into giving up his secret of reverse aging. Dominic has had an unhappy life in his unfulfilled scientific work and the loss of the woman, Laura (Alexandra Maria Lara), forty years ago! He never got over Laura and has an excuse – he's got a grudge against the world.

With the Nazis wanting to kidnap Dominic, he escapes to Switzerland where he creates fake identities for himself and uses his paranormal skills at the casino to pay his bills. He finds that he has extraordinary abilities to hold a book and know all its contents. He can heal. He understands and speaks any language.

But he is still a miserable old man. He finds no joy in his second chance at being a young man with miraculous abilities.

Hiking along a winding road, he encounters two women who stop him for directions. Their car goes off the road in the approaching storm. One woman dies and the other woman, Veronica (Alexandra Maria Lara), is struck by lightning.

Upon returning to consciousness, Veronica starts speaking Sanskirt and tells everyone her name is Rupini and she is a seventh century disciple of Chandrakirti, abbot of Nalanda University and a disciple of Nāgārjuna and the most famous member of what the Tibetans came to call the Prasaṅgika school of Madhyamaka. He was an authority on Emptiness Yoga.

Rupini is a boon to Dominic's research since she starts speaking ancient languages. Soon Rupini will be moving further back in time to our first stirrings of language. When Veronica is not channeling Rupini, she is a lovely young woman and Dominic, now in his 80's, falls in love with her.

While Dominic is a sour man his doppelganger is always voyeuristically nosing around his romance with Veronica.

Though in his 80's he is getting younger and begins noticing his vampiric effect on Veronica. As she heads back in linguistic time, she starts getting older. And, since beauty is really supreme over all things, Dominic realizes he must abandon his work and leave Veronica, so she can return, not to the "Eternal Return", but her youth and beauty.

"Youth Without Youth" is based on a novella by Mircea Eliade. I have read Eliade's "The Myth of the Eternal Return: Or, Cosmos and History."

In his work on the history of religion, Eliade is most highly regarded for his writings on Shamanism, Yoga and what he called The Eternal Return — the implicit belief that religious behavior is not only an imitation of, but also a participation in, sacred events.

So Eliade certainly was aware that he was laying bare his psychological profile in "Youth Without Youth." I am sure a psychologist would have a lot to say about the Evil Twin, Dangerous and Nameless Nazi Woman Spy, and the notion of youth and beauty before all else.

With Francis Ford Coppola's return to directing and screenwriting after a ten year absence with "Youth Without Youth," I've been reading a lot about him. I applaud Coppola for choosing such a difficult piece and ignoring its lack of box office appeal. It is an intensely personal expression of creativity filmed with the patina of a European production.

The only problem I had with this evocative film was Roth's interpretation of the role. Dominic is maudlin and uninteresting. When we prefer the fake Dominic, you know your protagonist is lacking something essential.

Coppola has not cashed in. He is doing exactly what he wants to do giving us a film that succeeds brilliantly on its own terms. It is beautifully filmed and striking in its haunting themes. "Youth without Youth" succeeds where other films in this genre, I'm thinking of the recent "The Fountain," have failed.