The Snow is Singing

Logline

Based on oral histories of lived experience, an eight-year-old boy in a quiet Midwestern town begins to carry the unspoken memories of his grandparents’ forced displacement from Bhutan, as renewed fears of deportation force his family to confront a past they tried to bury.

SYNOPSIS

In a quiet Midwestern U.S. town, eight-year-old Ishir begins to manifest the suppressed trauma of his grandparents’ exile from Bhutan. Memories of ethnic cleansing, never spoken aloud, surface through the child’s body, dreams, and behavior, unsettling the family’s fragile sense of safety. As inherited memories bleed into everyday life, the family’s American sanctuary starts to unravel. When renewed deportation raids spread fear through their community, silence is no longer a protection. To save Ishir and themselves, three generations must confront their buried past and reclaim their shared strength to survive yet another era of displacement.

WHY NOW?

After surviving one of the largest forced displacements in modern history, the Bhutanese refugee community in the United States is once again living under the shadow of fear. This community already carries deep, unresolved trauma and one of the highest suicide rates among refugee populations. Recent reports in 2026 reveal dozens deported and hundreds arrested across Midwestern states. For some, forced return to Nepal—the temporary refuge they once fled to survive- has led to devastating outcomes, including suicide. The Snow Is Singing responds urgently to this unfolding humanitarian crisis, examining how generational trauma resurfaces when the threat of statelessness returns.

VISUAL STATEMENT

Drawing on the director’s three decades of theater experience, The Snow Is Singing fuses stagecraft and cinema to create a poetic, immersive language of memory. The film blends gritty realism with moments of abstraction, using symbolic materials, physical gestures, and sensory rhythms to explore how trauma is inherited and embodied. By moving beyond conventional narrative structure, the film externalizes the subconscious weight of migration and identity. Memory becomes physical, space becomes emotional, and the invisible scars of the Lhotshampa diaspora are rendered visible on screen.

Production Notes

Non-Actors Reenacting Truth: Aakash Khatiwada, Ishir Karmacharya, and other casts portray their own lived experiences 

Grassroots-Driven: Built on the strength of the Bhutanese American community, who provided homes, food, and locations.

Intimate Scale: A dedicated 6–7-person crew fueled by passion rather than traditional production scale.

Blended Form: A drama inside a protest inside a memory, where identity is both a performance and a means of survival 

Film Profile: Indiependent, Arthouse, Women as Executives, Experimental, Immersive, Community-funded, Non-actor playing their expereience

KEY TEAM

Produced By: Samundra Raj Ghimire, Bimal Subedi, Joes Pandey

Actors: Barsha Raut, Pooja Chand, Joes Pandey, Aakash Khatiwada, Ishir Karmacharya

Chief Executive Producers: Jiya Kuikel Khatiwada & Karun Kuikel

Executive Producers: Aakash Khatiwada, Manorath Khanal &  Kaushila Khanal Karmacharya
Cinematographer: Chin-En Gau, Editor: Sandeep Shrestha, Sound: Dikesh Khadgi Shahi, Music: Emad Rahman, Color: Yahya Elnagy

KEY THEMES

• Ethnic cleansing and state-led cultural erasure
• Intergenerational trauma and mental health
• Statelessness and the illusion of safety in diaspora
• Raising a voice for human rights through community theatre