Himalaya

Shown last year to great acclaim here at the Palm Springs International Film Festival (under another title), the story is about a tribal power struggle between a proud aging chief and a willful young challenger. The elder wants to wait for the proper date as set by the oracle and the young guy doesn't want to delay the start of the annual yak caravan salt trek and risk the threat of bad weather. This contest between men and mountain is as breathtakingly beautiful as any film that comes to mind. Perhaps even rivaling Terence Malnick's "Days of Heaven." There's a spiritual center to this extraordinary film that puts "A.I." to shame -- and at a fraction of the cost.

Director Eric Valli, a National Geographic photographer, lives in Nepal. The amateur cast of high mountain Tibetans is refreshingly natural. The exotic soundtrack is by Bruno Coulais. This masterpiece deserves discovery. The images will shimmer in your dreams for days.


Himalaya - Cinematic documentary   April 9, 2002
Anaguma (Platteville, WI USA)
9 out of 10 found this review helpful

I rented and immediately purchased the DVD. It is a movie, but it pays very close attention to the life of the Dolpo-pa, and as such, it not only presents a story, but captures a "culture in time" that few of us will ever experience. We may walk through these people's villages, or hire them to carry our gear, but we never can participate in their personal lives. Eric Valli, whatever his ulterior motives in creating this film (if any), had to have been driven by a love of the people and mountains to put this together. In an era of globalization and the loss of cultures and languages every year, films of this kind have great anthropological and human geographical value. It's too bad that more Eric Valli's don't exist to preserve our vanishing human heritage. When presented as a story, it can reach a much wider audience than a standard documentary; the story pulls the viewer into the lifestyle.

In addition to the movie, I found Debra Kellner's "The Making of Himalaya" to be equally as interesting. It presents another side of these people as real people interacting with a director and film crew. There is also an "Electronic Press Kit" which contains interesting footage such as showing cameras strapped on yaks' backs, and the pushing the fiberglass yak down the cliff into the lake.

The DVD appears to be a good transfer on my PC and DVD player and has a bonus soundtrack of commentary by Eric Valli and Debra Kellner.

Excellent little film.


Lear into thin air   July 13, 2002
Orrin C. Judd (Hanover, NH USA)
7 out of 8 found this review helpful

In a magnificent film that manages to combine elements of Shakespeare and a National Geographic special, Eric Valli tells the story of Tinle, the leader of a
Nepalese village, who upon the death of his son (and presumed successor) engages in a power struggle with Karma, a young rebel against tradition. Karma's
family has some sin their past, which I don't think is ever explained, so Tinle is distrustful of him anyway, but this bad blood is
only exacerbated because Karma was on the salt gathering trip where his son died. Of Tinle's other sons, one is too young, Tsering, and the other is a Buddhist
monk, Norbou, so neither can take over for him. Instead, Tinle determines to lead the caravan of yaks on the annual salt-trading trek himself, despite his
advancing years. Karma, defying the omen-reading of the village's lamas, gathers some of the younger men and leads them and the yaks off with Tinle and a
motley party, including both sons, in hot (or bitterly cold) pursuit.

Mr. Valli has spent close to two decades photographing in the Dolpo region of Nepal (for National Geographic it is no surprise to learn) and
for this film he used mostly local non-actors. He's reverent of the culture of the people, appropriately awed by the setting, and, amazingly
enough, manages to convey it all on film. But don't worry, it's not some social studies project. When Tinle takes a treacherous shortcut to try and catch up
with Karma it's as exciting as any Hollywood thriller.

Though he's a difficult man, almost Lear-like in his determination to dictate events after he passes, we root for Tinle, over the disrespectful Karma. But when
Norbou offers the lesson of the film--"When two paths open up before you, always choose the hardest one"--we see that the two men, though locked in a
generational clash, are more alike than they or we first realized and that there's an unexpected continuity to the life of the villagers, a circularity entirely
appropriate to their religious beliefs, or vice versa. The film ends up being as lovely in spiritual terms as it is in physical terms, and that's saying something.

GRADE : A