"In a remote village in the Dolpo, in the heart of the Himalaya, the story of the old chief Tinlé who, on learning of his son's death and suspecting the ambitious Karma of being to blame, decides to lead the annual yak caravan carrying salt himself, in competition with the young Karma. It's the beginning of an extraordinary adventure: a journey at five thousand metres that will test everyone's courage and determination and will turn little Passang, Tinlé's grandson, into a new chief."
Dedicated to those who manage to cast their gaze beyond the mountain understood as a heap of peaks, and who see living in it a mix of nature, landscape, peoples and traditions. It's not exactly the Apennines we're talking about, but the same sensibility that drives hikers everywhere.
Himalaya, the childhood of a chief, a film that is no longer exactly recent, has all the qualities to be almost a decontextualised film, as if outside time.
Yes, because that's what the Himalayan lands are like, outside time and outside space... The idea of a pilgrim crossing the mountains bowing at every step, with the immensity of an endless journey before him, is more significant than ever for this sense of disorientation. A disorientation so typical that we find it in the proportions of the land, which we find joyfully reflected in Tibetan Buddhism.
A delicate film, subtle and imposing at the same time. Harsh in some respects, even brutal, but human... Where the gesture, that of a greeting given with the forehead, brings fragile souls closer in the constant struggle against the boundless emptiness of the landscape and, why not... of existence.
The photography of the landscapes, handled with mastery and love, contrasts with the harshness of the mountains and the fragility of the human being, set side by side in an immense picture painted in pastel colours.
A deep, moving film, it stimulates reflection on what are the key moments of existence without ever offering any ready-made answer...
The soundtrack written by Bruno Coulais is pleasant but basically still reflects an entirely Western way of interpreting melodies and listening to certain sounds.
An excellent film to see above all on the big screen, in the small art-house cinemas, but very good at home too, alone or in some select company to discuss it straight afterwards, while it's still hot, when the emotions are still vibrating strings...