Quick Summary: Who do we become when we can hide behind anonymity? The question is explored in this dark but beautifully costumed and utterly unique tale of sin and redemption in the Bhutanese countryside.

Title: Hema Hema: Sing Me a Song While I Wait (Hema Hema)

Release: 2016

Director: Khyentse Norbu

Starring:

Tshering Dorji ("Expressionless", The Bard)

Sadon Lhamo ("Red Wrathful", "Hideous")

The phrase 'hema hema' literally 'long, long ago,' is the traditional opening for fairytales in Bhutan; the film Hema Hema is a particularly grim fairytale about anonymity, sin, and redemption. Director Khyentse Norbu described his film as "something of an experimental film", and with all the actors masked and explicitly exploring the liminal space between life and death, it is certainly unique.

Within the world of the film, every twelve years there is a two-week long festival celebrating the Tibetan Buddhist concept of 'bardo'. The word bardo can refer to any liminal state, but usually refers specifically to the state between death and rebirth in certain strains of Buddhist thought. During this two week long festival, each hand-picked participant is expected to remain masked and anonymous. They are each asked to hide their identities, even their genders, insofar as this is possible. The masks, based on traditional Bhutanese masks, are wonderful, baroque creations - humans, animals, gods and devils, all brightly coloured and visually arresting. Over four hundred masks were bought, borrowed, or made for the film. Amidst this anonymity, inspired by modern-day social media, a crime is committed. The rest of the film deals with the consequences of the crime both on the festival and on the criminal himself.

The acting in this film is quite interesting, given that all the actors and actresses are masked for very nearly the whole film. Both Tshering Dorji (who plays, among others, 'Expressionless', a man in a simple, human mask who serves as the audience insert character) and Sadon Lhamo (who plays several female characters) put in remarkably convincing performances. They manage to give their characters personality and motivation with body language alone.

On the whole, this is an interesting film, however, it was too dark for me. For my tastes, there was too much emphasis on the unpleasant crimes committed, and not enough emphasis on the effects of those crimes or on one character's eventual redemptive arc. Nevertheless, the film is visually beautiful, especially the Buddhist-inspired dance sequences featuring numerous masked participants.