A journey into awareness For the first time I meet a feature film, the plot of which begins to unfold in Mustang, a mountainous region of Nepal, inaccessible and remote from modern civilization, where tourists are allowed only at a special quota to preserve the disappearing culture. A great and curious rarity, allowing you to peek at an unusual life, like unearthly desert landscapes, the unparadise mundaneness of a female Buddhist monastery.
The film begins with the “business card” of Mustang – heavenly caves, mysterious millennial buildings, where four nuns perform ordinary obedience: collect dung for fueling. More precisely, three perform, and the fourth - Karma, simply naughty, hiding in caves, depicts the mountain spirit. Karma is a kind and direct girl, devoted to her community, but her brisk and mischievous character, curiosity and sense of humor could not curb the monastic discipline.
The plot unfolds when the elderly abbess has passed away. Favorable signs foreshadow the imminent reincarnation of the monk, but in order to remove obstacles to rebirth, the nuns need to organize prayer services. However, the organization requires money, and the treasury of the monastery is exhausted: the good abbess willingly loaned. And one of the long-time debtors is a crook, rumored to be engaged in a “fun” business: he lures mountain girls and sells them to big cities and India. Two nuns volunteered to repay a strange debt, of course Karma is one of them. And it seems that she was prompted not only by the desire to help the monastery, but also by the opportunity to break out of routine. “If only I had been born a tourist,” she sighs when she sees a plane taking off for the first time.
The long journey of the nuns, of course, goes beyond instruction. And, having made a circle, will return the heroine and spectators to the heavenly caves with new meanings.
This is the third film of the director, which I watch, imbued with increasing respect for the author: his films are valuable for simplicity, everyday humor and everyday, non-exciting drama without nasty edifying. They deal with social problems without shouting and posture. Heroes of films are like real people, and many, I am sure, are real people, not actors, and there are such amazing types only in life and you will meet.
Watching the direct characters of the heroines and the uncomplicated vicissitudes of their path in the amazing land of Nepal is enough pleasure, but by the end the film also surprised by the plot twist, without unnecessary words revealing the true meaning of virtue.
I recommend it.
