Archive - 11th Five Flavours Film Festival

Travellers And Magicians

Bhutan 2003, 108’
subtitles: Polish and English
director: Khyentse Norbu
screenplay: Khyentse Norb
cinematography: Alan Kozlowski
editing: John Scott, Lisa-Anne Morris
music: Dechen Dorjee, Donam Dorji, Bon Funk, Jigme Drukpa
cast: Neten Chokling, Tshewang Dendup, Lhakpa Dorji, Sonam Kinga, Sonam Lhamo, Deki Yangzom
producer: Raymond Steiner, Malcolm Watson
production: Prayer Flag Pictures
language: Dzongkha
colouration: colour

Awards and festivals

Deauville AFF 2004 - Audience Award; Asian American IFF 2004 - Best Emerging Director, SAARC FF Sri Lanka 2016 - Best Feature Film Silver Medal; Sao Paulo IFF 2003; Kerala IFF 2004

Film description

Dondup dreams about escaping from his cozy village and visiting the exciting land flickering with colorful lights at photographs and film frames – America. But before he gets on a plane, he has to travel through hundreds of kilometers of Himalayan roads. Not discouraged by missing the only bus, he decides to walk on – the journey he embarks on has many surprises in store.

Khyentse Norbu uses the classic convention of a road movie to talk about the changing country, whose paths are still traveled by experienced shepherds, all sorts of vagabonds looking for their place on earth, and storytellers, sharing the tales from distant places and times. The episodic structure of the film allows it to touch upon many aspects of the Bhutanese reality, and its slow pace and the beauty of the land the protagonists wander through, bring back the legends and stories intertwining seriousness with humor, and original metaphors with a serious life lesson.

Jagoda Murczyńska

Khyentse Norbu

Born in 1961, lama (Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche), director and screenwriter. At the age of seven recognized as the third incarnation of the founder of the Khyentse line of Tibetan Buddhism, educated in Indian monasteries. He directing and political sciences in the US and at SOAS in London. In 1993, he was a consultant for Bertolucci’s "Little Buddha." In 1999, he directed his first production in India, a story of young Tibetan monks fascinated by football. His films, made in India and Bhutan, achieved quite a success at international festivals.

Filmography:

1999 Puchar Himalajów / Phörpa / The Cup

2003 Podróżnicy i magowie / Chang Hup Thengi Thruel Nang / Travellers and Magicians

2013 Vara: A Blessing

2016 Hema Hema / Hema Hema / Hema Hema: Sing Me a Song While I Wait

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