To Alexandra

Two travelogues intertwined. A collage. A correspondence.

Through text, researcher-writer Alexandra David-Néel’s journey across the Himalayas a century ago unfolds via her letters home—seeking answers in a world fractured by colonial entanglements, wars, and human ferocity. In audiovisual spaces, the filmmaker's experiences in eastern Tibet are reflected via her own lens and those of native Tibetan people. What begins through her encounter with a legendary school in the region becomes, by the film’s completion, an elegy — as violence eclipses “history”, yet fails to erase memory. Meandering between past and present, the work invites viewers into a meditative space open to contemplations on life, death, history, remembrance, the self, and more.

Director

Yi Cui