Kathmandu, Aug. 19 -- There are not many Nepali filmmakers willing to trust their audience to understand their film without announcing its intentions through dialogues. Dipendra K Khanal, however, seems to have given us a space to sit with his images, silences and ambiguities to make sense of 'Chiso Maanchhe' on our own.

Released in the theatres in 2022 and on YouTube in 2025, the film begins with a rolling wheel as the radio announces the number of deaths in Nepal during the coronavirus pandemic. Ashok (played by Arpan Thapa) has a mask hanging under his chin and a sanitiser on the edge of his truck's window.

Ashok, a driver, is hired to take a corpse from Kathmandu to Bajura in his truck. This is a corpse that has freshly arrived from...