‘Snow Leopard Sisters’ review: Indigenous conservationists fight for change in the high Himalayas

Dirs: Sonam Choekyi Lama, Ben Ayers, Andrew Lynch. UK. 2025. 96mins

The spectacular-looking Snow Leopard Sisters deftly illuminates global concerns through personal stories. Charting the friendship between two indigenous women in the high Himalayas, it conveys a vivid sense of the tensions between tradition and modernity regarding conservation issues, lifestyle choices and communities trying to escape the long shadow of patriarchy. Serious-minded but brimming with visual and human interest appeal, it could follow in the footsteps of Himalayas-set Sundance 2024 documentary Agent Of Happiness (2024) in attracting the attention of festivals, documentary channels and specialist distributors.

Brimming with visual and human interest appeal

Documentary’s ability to place the viewer in the heart of unseen worlds is vividly illustrated as conservationist Tshiring Lhamu Lama travels alone through the mountains around her hometown of Dolpo in northern Nepal. Surrounded by lofty, snow-covered peaks, she carefully navigates a narrow ridge in what looks like a path to Shangri-la. The majesty of the setting is in stark contrast to the dangers that lie all around. Tshiring has been a leopard conservationist for the past 10 years, a period in which their numbers have continued to decline. Now, she checks concealed cameras to see what they might have recorded. Tshiring recalls that, “ The first time I saw a snow leopard I fell in love”. The footage she uncovers underlines the grace and beauty of the creatures.

Local herders are less enamoured of the snow leopards that prey on their animals. Phone footage shows the night one family in Dolpo lost 45 goats to an attack. At the same time that Tshiring is try to protect the snow leopard population, some locals are intent on torturing, beating and killing the animals. In Dolpo, we are also introduced to Tenzin Bhuti Gurung, a soulful teenager whose life has reached a crossroads. Her sister has died and her father is in prison. She has been taken out of school to tend the family herd. There is a growing pressure for her to marry as it is considered “unacceptable not to have a man in the house”. Tenzin secures one concession from her family – an arranged marriage is placed on hold until she has completed a brief apprenticeship with Tshiring.

Over two weeks, the women work together, bonding and finding common ground. Tshiring becomes mentor and role model, showing the teenager that it is possible to live as an independent woman. She also converts Tenzin to her love of the snow leopards and belief in the need for practical solutions to maintaining the safety of local herds. Harmony requires that there is room for everyone.

Snow Leopard Sisters has a fearless, indomitable central figure in Tshiring, who treks through the mountain pass to Dolpo carrying her infant son Sontse on her back. Her commitment to conservation is unwavering and touching as she declares, ”If I can save just one snow leopard, it’s worth it.” Tenzin also proves a complex character with just enough backbone to resist the pressure she is under. Throughout her apprenticeship, she grows in confidence.

The relationship between the two women is at the heart of the documentary, but directors Sonam Choekyi Lama (a Dolpo native), Nepal-based journalist Ben Ayers and London-based filmmaker Andrew Lynch place that within the context of the wider communities around them, and the influence of religious figures, elders and herders. The result is a winning mixture of awe-inspiring natural beauty and insight into a generation of women advancing the cause of change.