Awards and festivals

Film description

The grumpy policeman Kinley is investigating the case of a missing prioress of a monastery hidden deep in the Bhutanese forests. The locals point his attention to a charming newcomer, living by herself, whom they accuse of demonic tendencies. Kinley follows her trace, increasingly intrigued by the mysterious figure and her stories, which come from the corner of reality he has always cynically dismissed.

The film by the young Bhutanese director is an original combination of a noir crime story, the poetics of Buddhist tales, and a realistic portrait of modern Bhutan. In her script, Roden uses motifs from the stories of daikinis, enlightened women and female Buddhas, personifications of female sexual energy, who convey the wisdom and the traditions of past generations, often accused of using dark magic. Another protagonist of the story is the bewitching mountain landscape, in which the characters are seeking the truth and getting to know each other. The background for plot is the social and political reality of the country, which is developing dynamically while trying to save the most important elements of its cultural identity.

Dechen Roder tells a modern story, putting it in the context of the words of the Buddhist teachers who conveyed their knowledge and skills to the next generations of women. The title of the film is a reference to the story from the life of Yeshe Tsogyal, the mother of Tibetan Buddhism, also known as the Wisdom Lake Queen. She was the closest disciple of Padmasambhawa, the founder of this religious school and the first person in Tibet who achieved full enlightenment.

Jagoda Murczyńska