An unprecedented glimpse into the secluded life of Buddhist nuns.
Beautifully filmed over a year on location in and around Backheung-am, a thousand-year-old rural Korean Buddhist nunnery, On the Road is a rare and revealing study of monastic life today. The documentary follows the lives of four Korean women, each with her own story, who have decided to become Buddhist nuns. Nun Sunwoo who lost her parents at a young age and grew up in the temple asks herself if this is the way she chose and what it means to her. Nun Sangwook chose to become a Buddhist nun before she became a professor and her old sick mother constantly visits her to change her mind. A seventy years old master, who has trained for 40 years, self-examines severely wondering if she has lived properly. Just before her ordainment, one of the novices journeys along with more senior nuns through delightful South Korean country landscapes and engages with a range of local characters, in scenes full of with humour and insight. Fiercely dedicated, passionate, hardworking yet prone to mirth, these nuns are sustaining a tradition of obvious vitality.