This is why I watch films. First-time director Pawo Choyning Dorji takes a simple story and transports you into the world of the inhabitants of Lunana, a remote village in the north west of Bhutan.
Ugyen (Sherab Dorji in his first role) is a reluctant teacher, serving a mandatory five years of service to the government but secretly yearning to escape to Australia to be a singer. As he awaits his visa, he is sent on one last job, to the ‘remotest school in the world.‘
It’s an eight-day walk from the nearest town, Gasa, and, as Ugyen trudges the mountain paths with guides Michen (Ugyen Norbu Lhendup) and Singye (Tshering Dorji), he is forced to let go of the comforts of city life. At first it is bodily comfort, then a music player that blocks his ears from the sounds of nature. Seeing how locals live, stopping at a roadside shrine, it’s as if he is seeing his country for the first time.
What he doesn’t expect is the reverence with which the job of teacher is held by the Lunaps (the 56 inhabitants of Lunana). Teachers, they say, ‘touch the future’ and give their children the chance to be something other than yak herders and Cordyceps gatherers. The rudimentary classroom he is given and the basic lifestyle make him want to flee but he must wait for the mules to be ready for the return journey and, while he waits, he begins to engage with the children and without realising, his culture.
Filmed in Lunana, director Dorji loaded 65 mules with cameras, solar panels, batteries, lights and sound equipment and trekked eight days to get there. Nearly all of the cast are locals who have never seen a film before. It is a credit to Dorji that he is able to coax such naturalistic and composed performances from all, particularly children such as class captain, Pem Zam (playing herself).
The yak in the classroom of the title is a reality but also a gentle metaphor that weaves through the story of Ugyen and Lunana. The story is bound up with singing, and as local singer (and somewhat magical mountain spirit) Saldon (Kelden Lhamo Gurung) teaches him a song about the bond between yak and herder, we circle around Ugyen’s belief in what makes a good life.
The film understandably has a strong sense of place and you get to drink in the immensity of the mountains as well as the small details of an isolated life. We all know about Bhutan’s Gross National Happiness, the philosophy that guides the country. We get a glimpse of the dichotomy of the youth of the ‘happiest country in the world’ wanting to leave it and understand how this must play out so many cultures.
Have you seen this film? Let me know your thoughts.
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