Home isn’t always where you hang your hat…

The Sweet Requiem is a solid but imperfect look at the struggle of the Tibetan people, the refugees who made it to Delhi and for those still left behind.

Dolkar (Tenzin Dolker) is a 26-year-old living in exile in Delhi; who works hard trying to make a better life for herself like anyone naturally would.  However, when a mysterious figure from the past reappears in her life the memories of her difficult journey to Delhi begin to resurface.  Dolkar was only eight years when her father and she embarked on the difficult journey and now all these years later she finds herself confronted with the man she believes to be centrally responsible for the reason that only she survived that fateful trip.

This narrative follow up from writer/directors Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam who we last at TIFF in 2005 with Dreaming Lhasa is an emotionally accurate affair to say the least as The Sweet Requiem does effectively capture the natural stress and drama of those effected by conditions in Tibet but also in the harrowing journey it takes to escape from such repression.

It’s a well crafted film with genuine flow to it; although the use of mostly non-professional actors with limited experience make some of the scenarios and set-ups a little clunky and in effective.

Ultimately, The Sweet Requiem manages to get its point across from beginning to end, but it needed more emotional punch to make it something special.