HIMALAYA

(Tibetan with English titles)

The name, Eric Valli, is not a familiar one to most people but among his peers, he is an acclaimed freelance photographer who has worked for some prestigious magazines like the National Geographic. His youthful wanderlust led him across North Africa and the mountainous regions of the Asian continent to Nepal where he eventually settled. On one of his many journeys, he discovered the remote region of Dolpo where the people still practice traditional Buddhist culture. Because of its remoteness, this was and still is more a factor of geography than political reality since China invaded its neighbor, Tibet, in the forties. Valli’s imagination was continually stirred by his adopted homeland while he plied his trade until he finally felt the need to make a movie about its vanishing way of life. "Himalaya" is the result.

"Himalaya" was made in 1999, nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Film for the year 2000 under the title, "Caravan," but not released in the states until now with the name change. The original title is indicative of the movie’s action but, intentionally or not, the mere sound of the word, Himalaya, conjures up the promise of a world outside the realm of Western experience. The title is an invitation to embrace the mystery of a lifestyle, culture, and belief system - Buddhism - that has been the subject of fantasy and speculation in Hollywod ever since Frank Capra made "Lost Horizon" in 1937. This film was concerned with a man’s search for inner peace. The details of his life and those in his presence were used to embellish the plot whereas the details of people’s lives in "Himalaya" are the whole point of the movie. In terms of style, Valli’s tale has more in common with the pioneering efforts of Robert Flaherty who went to live among the Eskimos in 1920 with a two camera crew. Once there, he fashioned a narrative framework that became "Nanook of the North" (1922).

The centerpiece of "Himalaya" is a caravan trip across a harsh landscape of untamed beauty fraught with danger at every turn where one false step could send a man and his beast of burden plunging down the side of the mountain to their deaths. The trek is part of a cultural tradition linking man to the earth and the renewal of a life cycle through the harvesting of barley in exchange for another staple necessary for the sustenance of life - salt. The traders interpret their harmony with their environment through the tell tale signs of nature like the position of the clouds or the direction and thrust of the wind. Knowledge of these omens is handed down from one generation to the next through the spiritual leaders of the village. Respect for their wisdom, experience and insight is essential to the success of the caravan and their survival. There is a thin story line about a young man vying for leadership over the objections of the village chief but it is muted by Eric Valli’s real story about the determination of an ethnic group of people to cling to a traditional way of life that has existed for hundreds of years. The sheer majesty of the Himalayas’ countenance and immutable presence stands like an eternal spiritual force to remind them of their oneness with nature so that they may preserve it for their offspring and inhabit it in another form in their next lives.

The sight of the Himalayas should also serve as a reminder of the amazing logistical feat accomplished by Eric Valli in bringing "Himalaya" to the screen. The movie has no special effects - no digitized scenes - and no visible signs of a modern world, like roads for trucks or telephone lines cutting across the landscape in the distance. Everything needed for the survival of the crew and actors - most non-professional and native to the region - were brought to the locations by the same mode of transportation as seen in the movie. "Himalaya" was shot like a documentary in every sense of the word but the narrative framework created by Eric Valli allows him to expound upon the humanity and spiritual nature of the people without sacrificing the movie’s sense of high adventure. "Himalaya" has an artfulness and respect for its subject that Robert Flaherty would have appreciated.

Copyright 2001

"Nanook of the North" (1922) - Director Robert Flaherty was the first person to shoot a movie using an indigenous people in their natural habitat. He lived with the Eskimos over a period of time to document their daily struggle against the elements. The movie still looks impressive even when you realize that some of the scenes were staged. But this doesn’t take away from the film’s reality when you also discover that Nanook died from starvation on the ice soon after Flaherty finished his film. The success of "Nanook of the North," Flaherty’s first film, led to several unsuccessful studio sponsored collaborations for which he retained credit as a co-writer. "White Shadows of the South Seas" (1928) (finished by W. S. Van Dyke, a veteran director of silent cowboy movies) and "Tabu" (1931) (finished by F.W. Murnau) had similar themes about man and nature but took place in a totally different environment. "Nanook of the North" was recently remastered for a video release.

"Man of Aran" (1934) - Another Robert Flaherty classic. This one’s about the fishermen who eke out an existence at sea off the West coast of Ireland. Images of the barren windswept coast and the undulant sea linger long after the film is over. It’s hard not to imagine that Michael Powell ("Red Shoes") wasn’t influenced by this film when he made "The Edge of the World" (1937) about the death of a way of life on one of the Shetland Islands.

"Savage Innocents" (1960) - Dir. Nicholas Ray: This is practically a dramatized version of "Nanook of the North" with the always superb Anthony Quinn as the Eskimo. Great cinematography and location shooting are the movie’s saving graces.

"Lost Horizon" ( 1937) - Not the 1973 musical but the Frank Capra classic about one troubled man’s search for inner peace and a place called Shangri-La in the mountains of Tibet at the roof top of the world. The caravan scenes are not so different in mood and temperament than the ones that dominate "Himalaya" except that they were shot on the back lot. Ronald Colman stars with Sam Jaffe as the mesmerizing High Lama who becomes his mentor. A key scene with an idyllic plea for world peace was later cut, presumably for being out of tune with world events and the advent of war. A restored version is available on video and DVD with a full soundtrack. Stills from the scene are used for the missing footage.

"The Razor’s Edge" (1946) - Tyrone Power plays an author in search of inner peace in this adaptation of a novel by Somerset Maugham. Power goes to study in Tibet and comes back a changed man in touch with his soul who asks not what he can do for himself but what he can do for his messed up friends. The book skips over his trip to Tibet while the movie included his visit to a Tibetan Monastery for continuity. The effect on his character is felt throughout the last half of the picture.

"Seven Years in Tibet" (1997) - Dir. Jean Jacques Annaud - Brad Pitt plays real life Heinrich Harrer who leaves Nazi Germany to go climb a mountain where the outbreak of war catches up to him. He becomes a P. O.W. and escapes to neutral Tibet where he is befriended by the fourteen year old Dalai Lama. Each learns something from the other until the Chinese invasion tears the country apart. Slow going but worth the effort.

"Kundun" (1997) - Martin Scorsese’s film about the 14^th Dalai Lama was released later in the same year as "Seven Years in Tibet." It’s is much more impressionistic in style and temperament, and much more concerned with his personal growth as the spiritual leader of his country and his emergence as a leading world figure after the invasion of his homeland by the Chinese Communists under Chairman Mao. The story ends with his escape to India when he realizes he cannot stop the occupying forces from decimating all the visible remnants of the Tibetan Buddhist culture without violating his own beliefs in the power of Wisdom and Compassion.