White Sun

This meditative and understated Nepali feature is set in the wake of two decades of political and religious division and brutal war. Showing the tensions that still persist long after the nation’s 2006 Peace Accord, White Sun serves as a testimony to the frailty of such peace treaties and their inability to effectively address the socioeconomic inequalities among warring factions that lead to bloody conflict in the first place. Maoist soldier Chandra (Dayahang Rai), who was on the "winning" side, and his brother Suraj (Rabindra Singh Baniya), who was part of the opposing royalist army, serve as broadly symbolic figures of the macrocosmic divide tearing Nepal apart. Both Chandra and Suraj find themselves uncomfortably reunited when they become pallbearers for their recently deceased father. But the two cannot even work together on such a seemingly straightforward undertaking: for the brothers, the personal has irrevocably become the political, and vice versa. Serving as a visual backdrop for this intense sibling spat are beautiful panoramas of the Himalayan region, an environment seemingly undisturbed by years of strife. Director Deepak Rauniyar deftly lets the visuals drive the story in this powerful film. Highly recommended. (M. Sandlin)