Himalaya: Caravan is a 1999 Nepali film directed by Éric Valli and It was the first Nepalese film to be nominated in the Best Foreign Film category at the 72nd Academy Awards.
Caravan is a story set against the backdrop of the Nepalese Himalayas. At an altitude of five thousand metres in the remote mountain region of Dolpa, Himalaya is the story of villagers who take a caravan of yaks across the mountains, carrying rock salt from the high plateau down to the lowlands to trade for grain.
At the beginning of the film, Lhakpa, the heir to the chieftainship of the tribe is revealed to have died in a botched attempt to navigate a shortcut.
An annual event, the caravan provides the grain that the villagers depend on to survive the winter. The film unfolds as a story of rivalry based on misunderstanding and distrust, between the aging chief, Thinley, and the young daring herdsman, Karma, who is both a friend and a rival to the chief's family, as they struggle for leadership of the caravan. The elders of the tribe assert that Karma should lead the caravan in the absence of Lhakpa, but Thinley objects and insists that someone else should lead the caravan.
Karma, seeking to prove himself as a worthy leader, departs a few days before the scheduled departure of the caravan, leaving behind only the youngest and oldest members of the tribe. Karma's relatives plead with Karma not to leave as leaving before the scheduled departure of the caravan was seen as deceitful. Karma does not heed this warning, and soon the elders of the tribe congregate to determine which households still had remaining salt. Thinley decides to lead the remainder of the community in a caravan with the remaining salt, recruiting his monastic son, Norbu, to join his endeavours, on the original set day of departure. Thinley soon catches up with Karma's caravan, despite Karma having taken a shortcut and having left days earlier. Thinley asserts his leadership, and Karma acts as a role model to Thinley's grandson Tsering. Thinley predicts an oncoming snowstorm and immediately commands the caravan to depart immediately, which Karma refutes as the sky is clear. Karma stays behind as Thinley and the rest of the caravan departs.
When the snowstorm sets, Thinley grows weary and exhausted, and in ensuring that the caravan is remaining a cohesive unit, Thinley collapses in the snow. Karma arrives, having realized his mistake, and carries Thinley to the front of the caravan. The caravan is successful in reaching a landmark and survives the snowstorm, but Thinley collapses at the landmark, asking to be left to die. The leaders of the caravan agree, indicating that Thinley, as masters of the mountains, should honor his wishes to peacefully pass away in the mountains rather than the flatlands.
The film ends with Thinley's monastic son, Norbu honoring the legacy of Thinley by painting a monastery wall with the caravan's adventures.
27 сен 2024
