When Saraswati arrives as the first educated daughter-in-law in a Himalayan village, she wonders how she will ever feel at home. But faced with the scepticism of an older generation of women, she grows determined to succeed. As the village’s ten-day Pandav Lila festival approaches, the film offers a window onto the everyday work and spiritual practices that bind people to each other and the land. An intimate story of longing and belonging in India’s sacred mountains, ‘Spirit’ explores what it takes to make a home in a remote community in the thralls of change.
Director, Producer: Jane Dyson
Director, Camera, Editor: Ross Harrison
Location recording/design/edit/mix: Nicholas O’Brien
Dialogue edit/sound design: Ben Gale
Music: ‘Universalis’ by Hammock
Colour: Sam Gilling
Melbourne Documentary Film Festival
Royal Anthropological Institute Film Festival, UK
Deep Focus Film Festival, Brooklyn, New York
Ethnografilm, Paris, France