It's a film about the journey of a man, born with leg and torso athrophy, taking his mother's ashes to the spring of the river ganges, and at the same time his interior journey of belief and reward with purification in the mountains of the Himalaias. He travels 6000 Kms and back. While 14 out of the 16 people that started off this journey end up quitting, only him and his newly met companion meet the goal. It's a story about man's earthly divinization, about a light that sparkles on the man that allows himself abandonment of himself to atman, The Soul. From Varanasi to Calcutta, from the roads to the trains, from his village and back to it. Throughout the film the water of mother ganga has the power to clean the body as well as the soul, and this particular characteristic achieves its climax as he takes water back to his village and distributes it between the villagers in a social gathering, a celebration where the pilgrims that achieved their defying journey have the obligation of giving the party, preparing food. All in all, we're taken alongside a view of spirituality in its transcendental questioning and we are made to construe the meaning ourselves, since Honkasalo doesn't deliberately guides us to a fixed conclusion.
See also
Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews
