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At age eight, Dolkar and her father fled their home, escaping Chinese armed forces in an arduous journey across the Himalayas. Now 26, she lives in a Tibetan refugee colony in India, where an encounter with a man from her past propells Dolkar on an obsessive search for the truth.

Synopsis

At age 8, Dolkar and her father fled their home in Tibet, escaping Chinese armed forces in an arduous journey across the Himalayas. Now 26, she lives in a Tibetan refugee colony in Delhi, India, where an unexpected encounter with a man from her past reveals long-suppressed memories, propelling Dolkar on an obsessive search for the truth. With stunning cinematography and skillfully subdued tension, The Sweet Requiem, from the filmmaking team behind Dreaming Lhasa (HRWFF, 2006) and The Sun Behind the Clouds: Tibet's Struggle for Freedom (HRWFF, 2010), is an unforgettable reflection on an ongoing but too often forgotten refugee crisis.

Official Selection, Toronto International Film Festival 2018

 

The Sweet Requiem shows carefully and respectfully the pain of Tibetan exiles and the pressures they’re under.”
- Sophie Richardson, China Director, Human Rights Watch

Credits

Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam

Directors

Indian-Tibetan filmmakers Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam have been working together for more than 30 years. They have made award-winning documentaries, video installations and two feature films. Their documentary, The Sun Behind the Clouds (2009), won the Vaclav Havel Award at the One World Film Festival in Prague. Their feature films, Dreaming Lhasa (2005) and The Sweet Requiem (2018) both premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. Ritu and Tenzing are also the directors of the Dharamshala International Film Festival, which they founded in 2012 and is now one of India’s leading independent film festivals.