Living Goddess offers a rich and gorgeously photographed view of a Nepalese world where, according to Hindu/ Buddhist tradition, three young girls are worshipped as living goddesses. The youngest, Sajani, is just 10, having been chosen by the high priest for been “blessed with the 32 perfections”. When Sajaniis not been feted by worshippers and attending animal sacrifices, she’s just like any other child, playing with friends and having tea parties. Ishbel Whitaker’s film sets religion and the relative innocence of Sajani’s world against a violent Maoist - led civil war that rages on the streets as Nepalese demonstrators confront the police and demand more freedom from their king.
-The Daily Telegraph

In Nepal’s Kathmandu valley a clique of young female virgins are worshipped as goddesses. One is Sajani, who spends much of her time being generally grovelled to by adults (including her own mother, which can’t be good) who believe that she is an incarnation of Taleju - a local proxy of the Hindu deity Kali. Ishbel Whitaker’s beautiful, languid film skillfully places the ancient superstitions vested in Sajani against the upheavals of modern-day Nepal, plagued by a civil war with Maoist insurgents and the domestic tumults of a royal family that Shakespeare wouldn’t have dared invent.
-The Guardian

Sometimes, if a filmmaker is lucky, a story takes on it’s own life. This happened to Ishbel Whitaker and Marc Hawker who were in Nepal making an intimate documentary about the strange cloistered life of Sajani Shakya, a nine year old girl who was deemed to be in posesion of “32 Divinities” and was worshipped as a Goddess by Hindus and Buddhists alike. However, during the coarse of filming, they found themselves overtaken by events and in the middle of a revolution, as a popular uprising to remove the country’s autocratic king began. Thus, peculiar, slightly disturbing footage of a tiny girl offering blessings to prostrate adults is intercut with visceral, intense footage of street protests, baton charges and savage beatings. the film isn’t without longeurs, but has a cumulative power, not to mention a distinct sense of unpredictability as it becomes apparent that events are spiralling out of control.
-Time Out

Ishbel Whitaker’s striking documentary enters the secret world of Nepal’s kumaris, or living goddesses the backdrop of this private world of devotion to prepubescent virgins is the Maoist - led civil war raging in the country, seen here through the eyes of these child deities.
-The Independent

This lushly shot film - all sumtuous reds, flickering candles and rituals to a Nitin Sawhney score - explores the Nepalese worship of young girls as the incarnation of the goddess kali. As one of the girls featured here observes, it can be a bit confusing: ‘We are Buddhist girls, posesed by a Hindu goddess”. Successful selection requires 32 attributes of perfection, including the right pitch of voice, and can lead to a secluded life of ceremonial duties. but what happens to the girls after puberty and their days as a deity? And where does this tradition stand amid the continuing Maoist insurgency against Nepal’s despotic King?
-The Observer