I like to watch a film like this every once in a while. Pan is also the director of a film about Ayurveda that I want to see some time. “Samsara” is one of those ‘Buddhistic films’ playing in a monastry high up in the Himalayas. Tashi is a monk who -like many others- was sent to a monastry at the age of five. Now being a young man he returns to the monastry after three years of meditation in a cave. Instead of having reached enlightenment, Tashi feels more attached to the illusionary world, having wet dreams and falling in love with the beautiful Pema. With the idea that even the prince of Kapilavastu only went to live an ascetic life after the age of 29, Tashi leaves the monastry to marry Pema and live the life of a farmer. When his former teacher dies, Tashi leaves his wife and son to return to the monastry. Pema then tells about he life of Siddharta, how also he has left his wife and his five-year-old son without saying goodbye and questioning whether Yashodhara has played in part in the Buddha’s enlightenment. A very nice and slowpaced film with beautiful images and a nice story about the collision between the lifes of monks and outside the monastries.