Crows are White

Where can a young Saudi man who grew up in Ireland and lives in Los Angeles find answers to the questions that trouble him? Japan, of course. More specifically, a Buddhist monastery where monks undergo extreme, life-threatening tests of physical endurance in their pursuit of enlightenment. The filmmaker, Ahsen Nadeem, is himself on a quest for a kind of enlightenment, or at least a way to stop leading a double life. His devout parents wish he would find a nice Muslim girl, and know nothing about his white American girlfriend. The secretive monastic sect is not welcoming, but Nadeem insists. On his journey, he becomes friends with an unorthodox monk who loves heavy metal, desserts, and gadgets, and the two help each other find a path that reconciles faith, family duties, and love.