Himalaya: Last night we watched the movie, Himalaya. What a remarkable movie! It was filmed in Nepal and has a cast of hundreds. Yaks, that is. The story is quite simple. Karma, a young villager, returns home with a caravan of yaks. He also brings the body of the caravan leader, son of the village headman. The son has died in an accident. Karma intends to load the yaks and begin another journey, carrying salt to trade for grain. Tinle, the village headman, says that the caravan can’t go until the diviners set the date. Karma doesn’t believe in this superstition, rouses the young men of the village and departs early. Tinle is left with only the older men and determines that he will lead them along with his young grandson. He is intent on catching up with the earlier caravan and takes a very dangerous route. He is assisted with a second son, who has lived in a monastery since the age of eight. He is a painter of frescoes and knows nothing about caravan life. Much of the movie was shot along the caravan route. The film is exciting with scenes along a very narrow route, a trail washed out, and through a blizzard. The scenery is spectacular. As were the yaks. There were some very beautiful animals.

What is just as exciting is viewing the special entitled The Making of Himalaya. Here we find out how the film was made by a French film crew. They had permission to spend 20-some days to shoot the film. The shooting ran some 80 plus days. Remoteness of the location and transportation of cameras and equipment added to the problems. Logistics of feeding and housing the cast and the crew was an additional burden. Most of all the film participants were not actors but simple village people who had never even seen a moving picture. They had to be taught to act and recite lines.This was an exceptional film and I recommend it very highly.