I Listen for the Sound of Ashes

Incoming Editorial·Reviewed May 29, 2026

I Listen for the Sound of Ashes unfolds through recorded phone conversations between the filmmaker and his parents during a period of political unrest in Nepal. As they speak about fear, memory, and everyday life, the screen holds quiet American landscapes: mountains, clouds, empty fields — places that feel still while everything back home feels unsettled. The film is about distance, but more than that, it’s about relationships: between a son and his parents, between diaspora and homeland, between safety and responsibility. It asks what happens to identity when you live far away from the place that shaped you, and how connection survives across that distance.