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RAI FILM Festival takes place on 27-30 March 2025. Learn more.

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Holy Men and Fools

Directed by Michael Yorke

2005 – 61'

Synopsis

The film narrates the story of Uma Giri, a Swedish woman who has become a Hindu nun, called Uma Giri. She is one of the few western women to be accepted into the most radical order of wandering Hindu ascetics. The film follows her and 29-year-old yogi, Vasisht Giri, on an 18 day pilgrimage of self-discovery into the high Himalayas. They search out and stay with the saints and mystics of Hinduism in their remote huts and caves. They meet one sadhu who has not spoken for 14 years living beside the source of the River Ganges, Hinduism most sacred river. Finally Uma discovers what she has been searching for.

RAI FILM Festival 2025

The next RAI FILM Festival will take place in person from 27-30 March 2025 at the Watershed Cinema and the Arnolfini International Centre for Contemporary Arts in Bristol (UK) and online throughout the month of April 2025.