Teboho Edkins
Germany, South Africa, France | 2021 | 8 min
World premiere
Language : Mandarin
On the rural plains of Lesotho, Teboho Edkins documents the lives of children living in a Buddhist orphanage. Delicately observing every gesture, the film explores the relationships of power present in the heart of the hospice and ultimately questions the conditions for the sharing of a system of moral values.
On the rural plains of Lesotho, Teboho Edkins documents a day in the life of children living in a Buddhist orphanage funded by a Taiwanese charity. The confined and strictly regulated life of the orphans is described in a sequence made of songs and trance. Delicately observing the children’s and the monks’ slightest moves, the film details how relationships of power are established between the two parties. During different exercises, whether it is the position of the hands or the general posture of the body—whether tired, crouched or distracted—the children’s behaviour is always carefully monitored, without the nature of this authority being recognised. Always at a good distance and without taking sides, the film questions the conditions for the sharing of a system of moral values. In the end, it is also a matter of showing the persistence of the Buddhist religion in a predominantly Christian country, thus making visible a community doomed to disappear.
Tom Bidou
