lhasa ma soon chha
there is gold in lhasa

feature length documentary film • currently in-development
director: surbhi dewan • producers: surbhi dewan, jasmine lovely george
associate producer: aman dhillon • company: painted tree pictures

For centuries, Nepalese men traveled to Tibet for trade along an off-shoot of the Silk Road. Their adventures are well documented. This film uncovers the forgotten lives, loves and labor of women who sustained this historic trans-Himalayan trade route.

Documentation of this trade route, through historical, literary texts, folklore and popular culture, has forced women of this region into a binary of good and bad. The complexities of their existence have been completely ignored. This distorted gaze underscores the limitations of traditional historiography.

Though unfortunate, this situation presents an opportunity - for our film to imagine, reconstruct and revive lived realities of these women. The film searches for creative ways to heal gross systemic injustices that continue to limit the recording of women’s lives across borders and generations. Two central questions drive the film: 'Can we recover a past that was never recorded?' and 'Is there a future without a past?'​

​JOURNEY SO FAR:

• Early Development during Fellowship with EthnoKino (Bern, Switzerland) - January to June 2024

• Selected for Co-Production Market at NFDC Doc Film Bazaar, Mumbai, India - June 2024

• Selected for Co-Production Market at Film Conclave, London, UK - May 2025

• Selected for Docedge Kolkata, India - March 2026

• Won the Drishtikriya Award (cash prize) for further development, Docedge Kolkata - March 2026