Khyentse Norbu, the Tibetan Buddhist lama and acclaimed director of The Cup, Travellers & Magicians, and other noteworthy feature films, responded to the rejection by over thirty international film festivals of his new film, Pig at the Crossing, by offering the film online as a one-time streaming premiere.
The premiere took the innovative form of an online event, not the usual video-on-demand: the film was offered “live” in five different international time zones, with eleven different languages available as subtitles (it was filmed in Dzongkha, the Bhutanese national language).
Filmed on location in Bhutan with a team of young first-timers, Pig At the Crossing joins a select group of ambitious films that take the viewer on a journey through the bardo—the gap, or interval, between this life and the next (or, between birth and death…). These include the recent Bardo, by Alejandro Iñarritu, as well as Adrian Lyne’s Jacob’s Ladder, Jim Jarmusch’s Dead Man, Giuseppe Tornatore’s A Pure Formality, and even The Sixth Sense, among others. Unlike those, however, Norbu’s film is a low budget, small and nonprofessional cast project that carries with it the director’s keen sense of all the resonances of the bardo teachings, a key component of Tibetan Buddhist tradition. The Dalai Lama regularly refers to his own daily practice of “preparing for death.”
In a statement, Norbu said, “I have been thinking of ways to promote and nurture art and film in my home country of Bhutan. I decided to make this film almost entirely utilizing the raw talent and ambitious energy of a group of young creatives in Bhutan who are interested in coming together to build this story with me. It is my hope to plant the seed of the joy of the creative process and confidence into these young artists, to have the chance to accomplish what would otherwise have seemed impossible for them.”
Pig at the Crossing official website.
Trailer
