‘Crows Are White’ Review: Irreverent Muslim-Born Filmmaker Looks for Answers Among Marathon Monks

variety.com:

Peter Debruge Chief Film CriticA fresh new voice in nonfiction filmmaking, Ahsen Nadeem never intended to make the doc that became “Crows Are White” as deeply, disarmingly personal as it turned out, but in re-centering the focus on himself, he arrived at a much more honest movie.

Approaching the subject in the vulnerable, open-book tradition of cine-essayists Ross McElwee (“Sherman’s March”) or Caveh Zahedi (“I Am a Sex Addict”), Nadeem, who was raised Muslim in Saudi Arabia, works through why he found himself so conflicted about his religious upbringing, as well as how to break the news to his parents that he intended to marry a non-Muslim woman.

The result is an introspective — and at times uncomfortably irreverent — journey for both him and the audience. Nadeem’s original intention was to investigate the “marathon monks” of Mount Hiei, Japan, who seek spiritual enlightenment by walking a repetitive course known as the kaihōgyō, equivalent to the circumference of the Earth (roughly 24,000 miles), over seven years.

Tendai Buddhist monks are sworn to silence during this time, and must agree to either hang or disembowel themselves if they should fail.