'Himalaya' just shy of an epic

'Himalaya' just shy of an epic

Friday, April 27, 2001

By WILLIAM ARNOLD
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER MOVIE CRITIC

In the Oscar contest before last, a Nepalese film titled "Himalaya" jumped out of nowhere at the very last minute to score a best-foreign-language film nomination -- the country's first ever.

MOVIE REVIEW

HIMALAYA

DIRECTOR: Eric Valli

CAST: Thilen Lhondup, Karma Wangiel, Gurgon Kyap

RUNNING TIME: 104 minutes

LANGUAGE: Tibetan, with English subtitles

RATING: Unrated

WHERE: Egyptian

GRADE: B+

But it didn't immediately open in the United States, and its status since has been something of a mystery. I've received at least a dozen calls from readers over the months wanting to know when or if the film would play Seattle.

Finally, a full year after its initial burst of publicity, here it is. And it was worth the wait. Not quite a masterpiece perhaps, but a visually stunning mountain drama, and an absorbing look at a dying culture.

To call "Himalaya" a Nepalese film is indicative of the fudging that's become endemic to the foreign-film Oscar qualification process: The filmmakers are actually French (and the film has won two Cesars).

It's the story of a power struggle in a Tibetan tribe that lives in the Dolpo region of Northwest Nepal and whose livelihood depends on a yearly yak-caravan trip over the Himalayas to exchange salt for grain.

When the tribal leader is accidentally killed, Karma (Gurgon Kyap), his younger second-in-command, assumes control, but is resisted by the fallen leader's aged father, Tinle (Thilen Lhondup).

Tinle blames Karma for his son's death, and insists that he himself should assume the reins of village power and hold them as a regent until his young grandson Passang (Karma Wangiel) grows up.

The crisis comes to a head when the two factions cannot agree on the most auspicious time to start their annual caravan, and thus set out in two competing parties -- in effect, a contest between the generations.

The director, Eric Valli, is a former National Geographic photographer who lives in the Dolpo and has been writing books and making documentaries about it for more than 20 years.

And not surprisingly, this first fiction film is so packed with telling details and such a visual showcase for everything he's learned that it often seems like a National Geographic special.

Happily, it also works as a fascinating political drama and a rousing outdoor adventure, with at least one action sequence -- a caravan trek over a treacherous mountain pass -- that's a genuine show-stopper.

If "Himalaya" doesn't completely come off, it's probably because its use of non-professionals and Valli's lack of experience with actors occasionally shows. Some of the dialogue scenes tend to drag.

But the film oozes -- in almost every frame -- the kind of authenticity that's impossible to fake. And in its best moments, it recalls ""Chang," "Grass," "Tabu," "Moana" and the other great ethnodocumentaries of the movie past.