Heckler

In rich Australian bush-land, we find a cormorant bird. She stands statuesque drying her wings and begins to guide us through her story. Following the beats of an ever-changing landscape, we are guided on a poetic journey.

Varanasi is the Indian city where Hindus go to die. Stretching along the Ganges, Varanasi holds great spiritual significance because Hindu scriptutres say that anyone who dies there will attain moksha—liberation from the cycle of rebirth. Berlin-based director Dan Braga Ulvestad captures life and death in India’s heartland in this moving documentary filled with exquisite cinematic moments. By the River starts its narrative journey with the city’s “death hotels,” dedicated apartments where people wait to die, sometimes for decades, so they can be cremated on the banks of the Ganges.

Six strangers receive an alluring invitation to a rainforest retreat from an enigmatic host, but find themselves trapped by a mysterious force in a surreal psychological test.

In a changing climate, this powerful documentary draws on some 65 thousand years of Indigenous knowledge, to help us better prepare for the future.