Himalaya - The childhood of a caravan driver

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Movie
German title Himalaya - The childhood of a caravan driver
Original title Himalaya - l'enfance d'un chef
Country of production France ,
Nepal ,
Switzerland ,
Great Britain
original language Tibetan
Publishing year 1999
length 108 minutes
Age rating FSK without age restriction
Rod
Director Eric Valli
script Olivier Dazat ,
Éric Valli
production Jacques Perrin ,
Christophe Barratier
music Bruno Coulais
camera Eric Guichard ,
Jean-Paul Meurisse
cut Marie-Josèphe Yoyotte
occupation

Himalaya - The Childhood of a Caravan Leader (French original title: Himalaya - l'enfance d'un chef ) is a feature film from 1999. The drama, filmed in Tibetan language , was created as a co-production between French , Nepalese , Swiss and British producers. Directed by Éric Valli , who wrote the script for the film together with Olivier Dazat .

action

The Dolpo-Pa people , who originally lived in Tibet and then emigrated to Nepal, live in a small community on a plateau in the Himalayas . It lives from yak breeding and from trading in salt. Every year a caravan of men from the community sets out to travel over pass routes to distant valleys and exchange the salt for grain.

After Lapka, the leader of the community, had a fatal accident, the young Karma wanted to take his position, but received resistance from the elderly, especially from Lapka's father Tinlé. Tinlé blames Lapka's death on karma. Since Lapka's son is still too young to lead the caravan, Tinlé wants to leave with the men despite his age.

Karma breaks out earlier than planned with the young men and against the will of the old. Tinlé does not accept Karma's disobedience and goes on the planned day to catch up with Karma. In Tinlé's caravan there are his second son Norbou, his grandson and some older residents of the community. However, due to Tinlé's age and the weakness associated with it, it is difficult to catch up.

Tinlés and Karma's caravans collide. Tinlé realizes that karma is a good and responsible leader for the church.

Emergence

The Frenchman Éric Valli, the director of the film, lived in Nepal since 1983 and thus got to know the local culture. He had already published several documentaries and photographs for illustrated books and magazines about the region. He made his first feature film with Himalaya - The Childhood of a Caravan Leader.

When Valli suggested the project to producer Jacques Perrin , he liked it straight away. Valli originally proposed a documentary, but Perrin said the story could also be used as a feature film. Perrin and Valli decided to use amateur actors in the film because this made the film more authentic. Valli says: “I could have found [professional] actors, but I would never have found these faces, this inner strength, this knowledge. It would have been wrong somehow. "

The film was shot in Cinemascope from October 1997 to May 1998 .

Publications

The film was released in French and Belgian cinemas on December 15, 1999. In the French-speaking countries of Europe, the film became a great audience success. In France, Himalaya - The Childhood of a Caravan Leader has been seen over 2.91 million times, in Switzerland and Belgium over 115,000 times each. In Germany, where the film opened on December 23 of the same year, the success of around 116,000 visitors was significantly lower than in the French regions. In the United States the film at about 443,000 visitors played more than 2,480,000 US dollars one.

reception

Most of the critics received the film positively. Roger Ebert wrote that the film has "an unusual visual beauty and enormous inner meaning" . AO Scott from the New York Times also praised the film. The fascination of the film comes largely from the "breathtaking beauty" of the landscape of the region shown. It was filmed “excellently” and offered “an intoxicating dose of couch tourism” .

The film service , however, criticized the film. The Scope images are “captivating” , but the optical brilliance pays homage to “a picturesque superficiality” and enables “neither a feeling for the extreme living conditions nor for the strangeness of another culture” .

Awards

At the Flanders International Film Festival 1999 the film received the Grand Prix, the Audience Award and Bruno Coulais received a special mention for its “excellent” music.

With Himalaya - The Childhood of a Caravan Leader, Nepal sent in a candidate for a nomination in the category “ Best Foreign Language Film ” for the Oscar awards in 2000 . The film was selected for a nomination from among contributions from 47 countries, but ultimately failed to prevail against the Spanish candidate, Pedro Almodóvar's Everything About My Mother .

At the award ceremony of the César , the most important French film award, in 2000, the film was victorious in the categories “ Best Camera ” and “ Best Film Music ”.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Review by AO Scott in The New York Times , June 22, 2001
  2. ↑ Interview with Eric Valli at Ecran Noir
  3. ^ Suzanne Ely: INTERVIEW: 15 Years in Tibet; Eric Valli's Trip Through “Himalaya”. In: indiewire.com. June 22, 2001, accessed November 16, 2016 .
  4. ↑ a b c Himalaya - The childhood of a caravan driver near Lumiere with visitor numbers in European countries
  5. ↑ Roger Ebert's review of Himalaya - The Childhood of a Caravan Leader
  6. ↑ Himalaya - The Childhood of a Caravan Leader. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film Service , accessed April 14, 2012 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used