Satya: a Prayer For the Enemy

Already a winner of several "Best Documentary" awards (Atlanta Film Festival, Santa Barbara Film Festival, and San Francisco International Film Festival [for the Bay Area]), Ellen Bruno's Satya: a Prayer for the Enemy is a visual poem about the triumph of the spirit in a group of Tibetan nuns who have faced down (and continue to do so) an oppressive occupier--China, who took over Tibet in 1950. Following an uprising in 1959, which was brutally suppressed by the Chinese, Tibetan human rights have been consistently violated, with estimates of over a million Tibetan people tortured and executed in the past four decades. Satya focuses on the stories of Buddhist nuns who have been jailed on the flimsiest of reasons, and there beaten, electrocuted, and raped. Yet, even though this is a powerful testament (both of abuse and incredible resilience), Satya works too hard at being an art film. An impressive opening sequence utilizing slow-motion gives way to...more slow-motion. In fact, most of the film is shot in slow-motion thereby diluting the effect of a powerful cinematic tool. Still, the shocking stories of the Tibetan nuns (sometimes made more powerful by the visuals, other times not) offer a direct reminder that institutionalized evil still flourishes in the world, and we cannot ignore it. Recommended. (R. Pitman)