“Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom” (PG)  *** and a half

WHERE is Bhutan? It’s a pocket-handkerchief country squeezed between China and India. In 2020, “Lonely Planet” named it the best tourist destination in the world. 

We don’t see too many movies made there. This one may well be the first. Since its release in 2019, its list of nominations for awards and wins is impressive.

With limited electricity but no indoor plumbing, Lunana is a remote village set 4800 metres up in the foothills of the Himalayas. 

In writer/director Pawo Choyning Dorji’s Oscar-nominated film, Ugyen, a young man in Bhutan’s capitol Thimphu, falls out of favour with his family. He yearns to follow the advice in a battered travel pamphlet extolling the benefits of coming to Australia. His mother thinks otherwise. 

First he must get some personal development in Lunana –population 56, and considered so isolated that the school is referred to as the world’s most remote.

For eight days wearing unsuitable footwear, Ugyen trudges in the general direction of up, behind two villagers leading three heavily-loaded pack-horses to Lunana where the “schoolroom” has no supplies but the children are eager to learn. 

There he gets a lesson in humanity from the villagers and a poignant interaction from the handful of children as well as the yak which arrives as a gift to provide not only companionship but also warmth in Ugyen’s house as well as fuel for the stove – nothing in Lunana that can be used is wasted; go figure. 

The spectacular scenery is breathtakingly beautiful. The villagers are charming and the story offers a sweet optimism that develops into a coda in an Australian pub!.

Dorji keeps his film simple. Its plot is comfortably loose. It has no grand gestures or revelations, just Ugyen interacting with the locals. Its connection with the schoolkids may be plain to see (and, of course, it works vice versa), but it’s done without cloying or artificial drama. Its very lack of pretentiousness is its charm. 

The occasional straying from Bhutanese language to English may at first seem incongruous but it’s easy to accept and not really a problem.

“Lunana” sent me back into the daylight with a good feeling. It deserves to be seen by as many people as possible, including you.

At Palace Electric