Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom | Dir: Pawo Choyning Dorji | ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
In the first Bhutanese film to be nominated for an Academy Award, a young teacher who lives in Thimphu, the capital of Bhutan, is assigned to a remote school among the receding glaciers of the Himalayas.
Ugyen (Sherab Dorji), who lives with his grandmother, wants to be a singer and has applied for a visa to relocate to Australia. Unfortunately, he still has a year of tenure to complete for Bhutan’s Ministry of Education, which needs a teacher for the Himalayan village of Lunana that has a population of 56.
Ugyen reluctantly sets out on the 8 day trek up to the most remote school on the planet with two yak herders Michen (Ugyen Norbu Lhendup) and Singye (Tshering Dorji) from the village and their three packhorses. As the altitude increases, the population decreases and Ugyen has to abandon his technology and take notice of his surroundings.
This is a film that needs to be seen on the big screen as it is filmed on location, where solar electricity is spasmodic and Wi-Fi nonexistent, but the panoramic views are breath-taking. This contrasts with the close-up intimacy of the villagers, mostly played by locals who have never travelled beyond the village, and who revere the reluctant teacher.
There is a huge list of films set in schools that revolve around dedicated teachers and reluctant students, but South Korean writer/director Pawo Choyning Dorji has taken the Westernised young man out of the city and given him a deeper connection with the land and its people through the irresistible quiet charm of the students.
And – yes, there is a yak in the classroom because it is the yak dung that is burnt to provide the heating required. Norbu is as much part of the classroom as the nine students who absorb as much as they can so that they can escape their severely impoverished surroundings. Of course this poverty is only in materialistic things as it is their spiritual well-being that sustains the villagers.
Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom will screen at UWA’s Somerville from Monday 19 December until Saturday 24 December. Best to get your tickets beforehand from perthfestival.com.au and come early to secure a seat.
Lezly Herbert
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