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Samsara

Threat advisory: High - High risk of entertaining activities

Movie propaganda

What is more important: satisfying one thousand desires or conquering just one...?

Set in the majestic landscape of the Himalayas and shot in glorious cinemascope, Samsara - which means "the world in which we live" - tells an epic tale of a spiritual quest. This film is almost indescribably beautiful. The sheer magnificence of the landscape itself is breathtaking and the film is shot and directed with exquisite attention not only to the panoramic vistas, but also to the softly shadowed details of the interiors.

Tashi (Shawn Ku) is a brilliant young buddhist monk who is just completing three years of solitary meditation in a remote hermitage. As he resumes a monastic life of constant prayer he is honoured for reaching a state of advanced enlightenment. But surprisingly, even though his life from the age of five has been devoted to spiritual matters, he finds himself experiencing a profound sexual awakening. While performing a routine harvest blessing, he becomes irresistibly attracted to the farmer's beautiful daughter, Pema (Christy Chung). Arguing that Prince Siddartha renounced worldly existence only after experiencing it, Tashi leaves the monastery to discover the bliss of sexual union. He marries Pema who, it turns out, has spiritual wisdom that surprises and challenges him.

Theatrical propaganda posters

Target demographic movie keyword propaganda

Film Himalaya spirituality Buddha monk sex

Persons of interest

Shawn Ku .... Tashi
Christy Chung .... Pema
Neelesha Bavora .... Sujata
Lhakpa Tsering .... Dawa
Tenzin Tashi .... Karma
Jamayang Jinpa .... Sonam
Sherab Sangey .... Apo
Kelsang Tashi .... Jamayang
Tsepak Tsangpo .... Chen Tulku
Tim Baker .... Screenwriter
Nalin Pan .... Screenwriter
Nalin Pan .... Director

Cinematic intelligence sources

Samsara official movie site
Samsara QuickTime movie trailers
Awards and film festivals:

Brisbane Film Festival 2002: Best Feature Film
Faces of Love Festival, Russia 2002: Jury prize - best film
Karlovy Vary Film Festival 2002: Official selection
Melbourne Film Festival 2002: Best Feature Film
New Zealand Film Festival 2002: Official selection
Sundance Film Festival 2002: Official selection
Santa Barbara Film Festival 2003: Special Jury Prize; audience award: best feature
Toronto International Film Festival 2001: Official selection

NB: Ladakhi/Tibetan language dialogue with English language subtitles
Studios and distributors:

Niche

Intelligence analyst

Special Agent Matti

Theatrical report

Woah, time to stop and smell the roses.

If you are the least bit interested in spiritual matters, Samsara is the kind of film you'll enjoy seeing. It's about one man's spiritual digression from where he is back to the place from whence he started. Even a thousand mile journey begins with a step backwards.

Tashi has only one question to ask in his (current) search for understanding, the question which most virgins ask themselves again and again and again (see also Blurred): what's it like? As Tashi discovers, sex is one of the most powerful forces in human existence, driving people to murder, to start wars, to seek the highest heights and the deepest depths. It is beyond words. At one end of the scale, Tantric yoga can allow the bliss of sexual union to blossom into full consciousness. At the other, meditative yoga can allow the mind to bloom. Following the middle path is, as our hero says, the route to nirvana followed by Bhudda and that with which most human beings are comfortable. It is natural for him to essay the physical pleasures that have been denied him as, I assume, he was raised from childhood in the monastery.

All that aside, Samsara is a sometimes beautiful, sometimes harsh film that shows much about the Tibetan people. The mountain scenery, and you'd better like mountains if you're going to watch a film about Tibetan monks, is awesome, occasionally unreal, often forbidding. There's not a sunburned beach in sight. The cinematography matches that of A time for drunken horses.

Samsara is both a thinking person's film and a feeling person's film. If you are either, you'd better see it.