Samsara

'Samsara' is what the Buddhist cycle of death and reincarnation is called. In the temples of Laos we will experience the coexistence of adolescent monks, accompanying a soul in its transition from one body to another through the bardo. The words of the Tibetan Book of the Dead will serve as your guide here so as not to get lost in the afterlife. A light and sound tour that will take us to reincarnate on the beaches of Zanzibar, where groups of women work on seaweed farms.

Its director, Lois Patiño, delves into some constants such as: the reflection on the relationship between the human being and the landscape, an anthropological interest focused especially on the mythical and spiritual or the desire to take the viewer to an intimate and meditative experience.

The film is divided into two: two worlds, two belief systems, two experiences and inner lives. What unites them is a cosmic thread. The story begins near a miraculous waterfall in Southeast Asia and travels to a fishing village in East Africa. Its route is a bridge that is not on any map, and that perhaps only cinema can attempt to trace. The audience is only asked to close their eyes and travel with him.

In Laos, a young man named Amid cares for a dying woman and takes her boat down the Mekong River. One day he meets a novice monk, Bee An, who asks him about a book he carries. Amid explains that it is the Bardo Thodol, or Tibetan Book of the Dead, and that he has been reciting it to the woman. He returns to the woman and sees her saying goodbye to her belongings. Amid's adult life begins when hers is about to end. He pours drops of water on her hand to wake her up. With a group of monks from Bee An Temple, Amid travels downriver to the Kuang Si Falls. While they are there, the woman dies.

In Tanzania, the girl Juwairiya wakes up to the news that a goat has been born. She calls her Neema, an Arabic word that means "blessing." Juwairiya lives with her family in Uroa, a town on the eastern coast of Zanzibar. The women grow seaweed and make soap, the men fish. "Life is change," explains Juwairiya's grandmother. There is regeneration in the air.