SAMSARA (U)

Let yourself be transported to wondrous places on a journey that encompasses collective meditation and cinematic reincarnation. Patiño’s film leaves conventional narrative behind as we observe young monks in their daily rituals at a Buddhist temple in Laos, before being whisked into a different life on a seaweed farm in Zanzibar. The cycle of death and rebirth is stunningly captured on 16mm with an ethnographic eye (and ear) for detail. We’re invited to experience the spiritual through our senses, at one point sonically with our eyes closed. Take the trip, it’s absorbing and it’s worth it.