A young man comes face to face with a teacher from his past, and old wounds are reopened. In the misty hill town that has been the heart of the Tibetan exile community for more than sixty years, Tsangdo and his old teacher Gen-Tiger each wrestle with past hardships, present frustrations and what it means to live as a refugee and still find a place to belong. Moody and intimate, Dharamsala is a Tibetan-language drama about identity, displacement and the ties that hold an exile community together.

Post film: Q&A with director Tenzin Dasel

About the filmmaker Tenzin Dasel is an independent Tibetan filmmaker based in Paris and one of the first Tibetan women to direct films. Born in India, she went to school at the Tibetan Children’s Village in Upper Dharamsala. Her experimental short Seeds (2009), shot on a second-hand Super 8 camera, followed young Tibetans in Delhi. Royal Café (2016), about newly arrived Tibetan immigrants in Paris, premiered at the Dharamshala International Film Festival. Dharamsala is her first feature, and premieres here in Washington, D.C.