UK Asian Film Festival 2026: 100 Sunset

Writer and Director: Kunsang Kyirong

In 100 Sunset writer / director Kunsang Kyirong employs a number of techniques which immerse the viewer in the film’s immigrant neighbourhoods to the extent it is possible to share the sense of displacement experienced by people adjusting to a new homeland.

Kunsel (Tenzin Kunsel) has recently settled in the Tibetan neighbourhood of Parkdale in Toronto. She lives with her family in an apartment at 100 Sunset. Her father is something of a financial fixer for the neighbourhood, organising a Dukuti, a community-based rotating credit practice where members contribute money into a shared pool that is then allocated, often through a form of bidding, to one participant at a time.

The family also host card games in their apartment and a disaffected Kunsel takes the opportunity to steal small items from the belongings of their guests. Two of her trophies have greater significance than Kunsel initially imagines – a video camera and a nine-eyed dzi stone which serves as a religious protective amulet. Kunsel begins observing her neighbours through the stolen camera and in so doing encounters Passang (Sonam Choekyi), a woman close to her age and who apparently shares her feeling of unspoken dissatisfaction. Kunsel and Passang bond together, begin attending English classes and exploring their neighbourhood and the wider area.

There is a documentary tone to 100 Sunset. A sense of authenticity is promoted by the use of non-professional actors and the scenes set in the immigrant households have a washed-out sepia colouring like a faded photograph. Many of the scenes are shot through the stolen video camera so the size and shape of the screen changes and buildings are seen at odd angles creating a disconcerting alien setting. The bleak snowy background of Toronto is lovely to look at but not the most welcoming environment. The approach replicates the disorientation experienced by immigrants trying to adjust to their new community, a point reinforced by the casual use of unfamiliar terms and practices – Dukuti and Dzi.

There is no sexual tension between the two women and Sonam Choekyi’s Passang is an enigmatic character. Passang’s claim that she is trapped in an unsatisfactory marriage with someone she considers sexually voracious may be intended to give Kunsel a warning of how her life could turn out.

A parable of a monk who does not resist when his worldly goods are stolen but takes offence when the thief does not say thanks is repeated throughout the film to give a perspective on theft and dishonesty in general. While Kunsel may be using kleptomania as a distraction from her angst Passang seems crafty and deceptive, tricking one of the residents into an unwise action and carefully but secretly planning her future. Kunsel is willing to change her ways- offering to return the stolen video camera when its rightful owner makes clear the significance of the images it contains. But then it is hard to be sure whether the former owner was just spinning a story to warn Kunsel her dishonest actions had been discovered.

The imaginative staging in 100 Sunset moves viewers from being neutral observers and allows them to experience the confusion and disorientation immigrants go through when re-locating to a new homeland. The loose storytelling, however, leaves plot treads vague; although Kunsel is given examples of how her life could turn out there is no clear indication whether she intends to cease her kleptomania and her voyeuristic spying on neighbours so the conclusion is ambiguous rather than satisfactory.

100 Sunset is screening at the 28th UK Asian Film Festival.