Samsara

Part of the monthly Heartland Film Society series.

SAMSARA is a story split in two: two continents, two communities, two belief systems, two sets of experiences and inner lives. Between them lies a sensory pathway, all light and sound. The viewer is only asked to close their eyes and travel with it. In Laos, a young man named Amid is tending to a dying woman. He takes his boat out on the Mekong River. One day he meets a novice monk, Bee An, who asks about the book he carries. Amid explains that he carries the Bardo Thodol, The Tibetan Book of the Dead, and that he has been reciting it to her. It is “a book that someone has to read to you,” Amid says. He returns to the woman and sees her bid farewell to her belongings. Amid’s adult life is beginning where hers is near an end. He drips water on her hand to wake her up. “What can I do,” Amid reads to her, “now that I am dead?” With a group of monks from Bee An's temple, Amid travels downriver to the Kuang Si waterfalls. While there, the woman passes away. Another drop, another hand.

The story moves to Tanzania, where a young girl named Juwairiya wakes up to the news that a baby goat has been born. She names it Neema, the Arabic word for blessing. Juwairiya lives with her family in Uroa, a village on the East coast of Zanzibar. Local women farm seaweed and make soap. The men catch fish. “Life is change”, Juwairiya's grandmother explains. There is regeneration in the air.