Carlos Castaneda, sixties author and ‘celebrated godfather of New Age’ died in his Los Angeles home in 1998. Five women forming his ‘harem’ disappeared within days.  In 2004, bones are found at the edge of Death Valley belonging to one of the disappeared women. In a series of Californian road trips, filmmaker Minou Norouzi reflects on what the women’s obsession with Castaneda may have been and begins to wonder if her own life isn’t mirroring theirs. She meets a concoction of Castaneda associates who are all invested in telling her about Castaneda, whilst the story of the women remains in shadow.

Anatomy of Failure

An old man is entrusted in curing a young girl struck by amnesia. He takes her on a healing trip, eccentric and joyous, to Ouagadougou by way of the Cape, Berlin, Mali, Belgium… In their travels full of surprises, they meet characters both remarkable and luminous, or ignorant, with set ideas, some fabulous creatures, and a text hidden deep in a continent that reveals a well-kept secret: Africa has something to tell us.