Dark Red Forest

China 2021, 85 min, Tibetan, Hebrew & English subtitles

When the snows settle on the vast Tibetan Plateau, 20 thousand nuns leave the monastery for their annual winter retreat. For one hundred days they wander out in the extreme cold, carrying tiny wooden cubic structures on their backs, erecting them and taking them apart again and again. Each cube is a little house, the nuns’ only shelter until the snows melt. Their grueling physical and spiritual journey is a learning process. The nuns spend their time struggling with profound matters of faith, life and death, suffering and healing. Some grow stronger in their faith, others have no choice but to quit. The camera follows the nuns so closely that the depths of their inner landscapes almost seem to become one with Tibet’s mesmerizing snowy expanse.

Presented with the support of the China Cultural Center in Tel Aviv.

Previous Festivals: New Directors/New Films, DOKUFEST

Across the Universe Award Winners Faith, Tradition and Heritage International Films Panorama Official Website