Looking for a Lady with Fangs and a Moustache, the new feature film from Khyentse Norbu (The Cup, Travellers & Magicians), is set to open in North America on April 9, 2021. A special free online premiere is being hosted by the Rubin Museum of Art on April 8.
The film revolves around the story of Tenzin, an ambitious and skeptical entrepreneur in Kathmandu, Nepal, whose tormenting dreams bring him to a lama who tells him that he has only seven days to live unless he can find a dakini who can change his fate. The focus is on the traditional Himalayan respect for, and celebration of, feminine energy as the most supreme aspect of being. This energy is personified in tantric Buddhism by dakinis who may appear as mysterious living beings who give or take away our life force and guide or ruin our lives.
Director Khyentse Norbu, well known as the Buddhist teacher Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche, said, “I try in this film to explore some of the last genuine residues of Tibetan mysticism. Even among Tibetans themselves, their traditional beliefs and ways of behaving and looking at the world are increasingly rare and today carry little if any weight. And yet, I believe this ancient wisdom, which reflects the Buddhist view of reality, has something vital to offer our modern world. Especially, I intend this film to express the deep respect for feminine energy embodied in that wisdom, and to portray in a contemporary setting both the transformative power of this energy and some of the ways it has traditionally been evoked.”
The film premiered at the Morelia Film Festival, and was an Official Selection of the 2020 Tribeca Film Festival and the International Buddhist Film Festival 2020. It was filmed on location in Nepal by noted cinematographer Mark Ping Bin Lee (In the Mood for Love, The Puppetmaster, Norwegian Wood), and was executive produced by Olivia Harrison.
The Rubin Museum of Art in New York City will host a virtual live premiere screening of the film on April 8, followed by a live conversation with the director Khyentse Norbu and Dr. Richard J. Davidson. The Global Watch Now @ Home Cinema Release will be on April 9, concurrent with in-theater engagements as conditions allow.
Looking for a Lady with Fangs and a Moustache official website.