<< Back 9/4/02 Flicks — 'Himalaya' By Hunter Pope Himalaya Tibetan with English subtitles Director: Eric Valli Written by Olivier Dazat and Valli. Rating: No MPAA rating (no objectionable content). Eric Valli may be the greatest adventurer alive. No, he ‘s never scaled Everest with a leaky oxygen tank, nor has he hiked the Congo in a mere tee shirt and sandals. Valli’s bravado is channeled through a camera, a little piece of technological mimicry that can capture events, landscapes, and souls. Some of you may be vigorously scratching your head, wondering how a French-born photographer could be compared to a Cousteau or a Michael Fay (the guy who had a minimalist wardrobe in the Congo). Simple. Valli went to the forbidding Dolpo, a region in Nepal that is the highest inhabitable place on Earth. Instead of walking sticks he had film cameras. Instead of stage props he had Himalayan blizzards at 15,000 feet. Instead of sherpas, he had actors. But they weren’t the kind of actors who demand a cappuccino at noon and a call to their agent every 15 minutes. These actors threatened to revolt when filming ran late and prevented them from bringing in their crops. These were a few of the pains in creating the film “Himalaya,” a story about the vanishing tribes of the Dolpo, a group of people who have existed the same way (customs, religion, trade) since before written history. When I watched this film, I thought I was looking into the past. Surely, I thought, these people have moved beyond the fear of weather gods and trading salts with yak caravans. Not so. Such caravans still exist (although dwindling), and were the subject of “The Saltmen of Tibet,” a 1997 documentary by Ulrike Koch. When Valli set out to make this film, he decided from the outset to not use any hired actors. “I could have found actors, but I never would have found the faces, the inner power, the knowledge,” Valli told Indie Wire’s Suzanne Ely. “ It would have somehow been fake. And with Jacques Perrin — a great producer, an adventurer and a visionary guy, who produced “Z,” “Black and White in Color” and won two Academy Awards — we decided together, in the beginning, that we wanted to do something authentic. The only way to make it authentic was to deal with real people in real places. It took nine months to shoot in the highest inhabited place on earth!” Valli’s seasoned palate for adventure began when he was 18. The youngster was curious about human differences, and he felt travel would solve some of these riddles. He soon began work as a photographer and his work went on to be seen in National Geographic, the New York Times, Smithsonian, and Life. His thirst for the nomad life led him to Afghanistan, the Middle East, India, and finally, the love of his life, Nepal. Valli has stayed in the Dolpo region for nearly two decades, and the expatriate has written numerous books about his adopted country. In 1992, he was awarded the Gurka Dakshin Baho from the King of Nepal, in honor of Valli’s body of work about Nepal. His immersion gave him an understanding of the language and an ability to develop lasting friendships with Tenzing Narbou, an artist and lama, and Thinlen Lhondup, a 60-year-old Dolpo chief. These two men were the inspiration for two of the main characters in “Himalaya.” Thinlen actually plays Thile, the aging chief who must come to grips with the new leader, Karma. Narbou, on the other hand, was deemed too old to play his fictional counterpart. Both men, however, were tantamount in creating the script: “I remember reading for the first time the script that we had developed together to my Dolpo friends and Norbou stood up and said, ‘We just wrote the biography of our life, of our culture.’” Valli told the Toronto Sun’s Claire Bickley. “So for the first time, we were writing a namdar without a pen and a piece of paper. We were writing a namdar [a biography] with a Panavision camera and with a crew of foreign people and things like that, but the process was exactly the same. “Also, they were very proud that these yellowheads, as they call us, would come and spend so much time and energy and so on about their own culture, which they see disappearing, vanishing. Like Thinlen used to say, ‘It’s important we make this film before tradition melts like snow under the sun.’” “Himalaya” is a gorgeous, simple film that teaches the complexities of searching for the one lined truth. It is a tale of a village, which since the dawn of time has braved a brutal winter trek to trade salt for precious goods. Tinle used to be the trek leader, but his body has wizened (although his mind is sharper than the background crags) and he has left the journey to his son, Lhakpa. The son, however, is as mule-headed as his father, and he decides to take a treacherous shortcut by himself. The end result is a fatal slip and death. His best friend, Karma, brings his body back to the village. Karma is as heroic and tough as Lhakpa, and he is now the obvious replacement for the head of the caravans. Karma is also a pragmatist. He dismisses the old ways of the Gods and believes that common sense will guide them on the trek. Tinle doesn’t like Karma one bit. He believes that Karma was responsible for his son’s death, and that the position of caravan captain should stay in the family. He goes to find his son, Narbou, at a Buddhist monastery to see if he will lead the caravans. The son is at peace (he paints and prays all day) and does not want to lead the caravan. Tinle is unwavered by the decision and he decides to lead the caravan himself ... when the Gods dictate. Karma disagrees and decides to lead a young caravan without the Gods’ help. Despite the common sense pleas of the elders, Tinle waits on the will of the Gods and then leads a caravan of old men, a woman, and an 8-year-old child. The two caravans come to symbolize the conflict of the old and the new, and how tradition can still overcome the cynical. “Himalaya” is high adventure. I never thought a movie about salt trading could have so much suspense and elevated beauty. It also made me wonder if this was the way of future movies. By using real environments and real people, Valli has created an authentic movie that makes the “Titanic” look like an Ed Wood piece. However, I’m not sure how many moviemakers are willing to go through what Valli did. Director and crew trekked a thousand miles, the nearest road was a three-week walk, and one crewmember nearly died of high-altitude edema. Yet, the rewards were plenty. Besides worldwide recognition (the Cesar awards and an Academy Award nomination), Valli has since married Debra Kellner, the production’s still photographer. He also made good on a promise to Thinlen Lhoundoup — to take him to Valli’s native Paris. The Dolpo chief experienced all the amenities of the First World, along with the technological marvels (cars, buses, subways) that are nonexistent in his yak-filled world. Valli recalled to Bickley that he asked his long time friend what he thought of it all: “I said, ‘Thinlen, how do you feel? What do you feel about the place?’ And he said, ‘How clever. How clever.’” Valli allowed Thinlen to discover another world, and with “Himalaya” he has allowed citizens of the first world to discover Thinlen’s world. Valli also teaches us that courage, respect, and hard work will lead us towards solving those numerous questions that swirl in our minds with unrelenting persistence. “There are some great lessons,” Valli told Ely, “like when Tinle asks his son, ‘Why did you come with me?’ He says, ‘One day my teacher (lama) told me whenever there are two trails open in front of you, always choose the hardest one; the one which will squeeze the best out of you.’ This sentence was told to me about 12 or 13 years ago, and when it was told to me by this old man in a cave, I just thought, what is the meaning of life if you don’t give it your best? What is the meaning of life if you don’t realize your dreams; if you don’t try?”