Dark Red Forest

A work of visual awe and matter-of-fact spiritual inquiry, Dark Red Forest is a majestic documentary portrait that details the annual retreat of thousands of Tibetan nuns to small wooden houses on the vast Tibetan Plateau. With extraordinary intimacy, the camera nestles in with the women of the Yarchen Monastery, who, during the 100 coldest days of the year, learn about—and in some cases experience—profound matters of life and death, suffering and healing, karma and consequence. A document of the experiences of a group of increasingly politically embattled people, Jin Huaqing’s film is also a clarifying work of faith and philosophical inquiry, set against a forbidding landscape.