The cinema is temporarily closed for renovations and will reopen after August 2nd.

Samsara Samsara

Lois Patiño / Spain / 2023 / 113 min / Swahili, Lao

A sensory cinematic experience capturing the intercorporeal journey of a soul through the afterlife, from Laos to Zanzibar. In a transcendent sequence, the audience is asked to close their eyes and surrender to a soundscape accompanied by bursts of colour still visible through closed eyelids.

cast Amid Keomany (Amid), Toumor Xiong (Be Ann), Simone Milavanh (Mon), Mariam Vuaa Mtego (Mariam), Juwairiya Idrisa Uwesu (Juwairiya)

festivals, awards Berlinale 2022, IndieLisboa 2023

IMDb

The DVD of the film is available in our Bookshop. (List of available DVDs in Slovene only)

Photos

In Laos, young men live in Buddhist temples located amid spectacular, untamed natural wilderness. One of the boys regularly reads The Tibetan Book of the Dead to a dying old woman. She embraces the text as preparation for her reincarnation. Her soul is about to take flight—and with it the film itself, on the wings of sound and light. Patiño seeks to physicalise and cinematically manifest spirituality, the cycle of birth, death and reincarnation, daring to use cinema to evoke worlds outside the bounds of photographable images.

“With Samsara I doubled down on my commitment to the cinema that interests me, as a meditative and contemplative experience. In the middle of the film it becomes a collective meditation experience. Intimate and introspective, with the viewer closing their eyes for 15 minutes, listening to sounds. This can be powerful in a room full of people. /.../ Like all my films, the project came out of a formal exploration of the language of film. /.../ I wanted to explore the invisible. That's when I thought about the possibility of making a film to watch with your eyes closed. I came across The Tibetan Book of the Dead and found it to be the perfect text to link to this eye-closing cinema experience.” (Lois Patiño)

Kinodvor. Newsletter.

Join our mailing list and receive details of upcoming films and events!

What's On

A Complete Unknown A Complete Unknown

James Mangold

Friday, 18. 07. 2025 / 21:30 / The Ljubljana Castle

A much-anticipated biographical drama about the rise of one of the most influential songwriters in history, who changed the course of American music.

Film Under the Stars / Avant Premiere

Dreams (Sex Love) Drømmer

Dag Johan Haugerud

Saturday, 19. 07. 2025 / 21:30 / The Ljubljana Castle

Johanne falls in love for the first time… with her teacher. To preserve her overwhelming experience, she entrusts her feelings to paper. When her mother and grandmother read her writings, they are initially shocked by its intimate content but soon see its literary potential… »Refreshingly unexpected, Dag Johan Haugerud’s Dreams breathes new life into the often oversimplified genre of sexual awakening that seems to draw on his twinned career in both cinema and books.«Deadline. Golden Bear at the last Berlinale.

Conclave Conclave

Edward Berger

Sunday, 20. 07. 2025 / 21:30 / The Ljubljana Castle

When Cardinal Lawrence takes charge of one of the world’s most secretive and ancient procedures—the selection of a new Pope—he finds himself entangled in intrigues and scandals that could shake the very foundations of the Catholic Church. Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.