Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom

Sherab Dorji is "Ugyen". He is a teacher, approaching the final year of his training, who has rather set his heart of going to Australia to sing in bars. With one term left, his boss decides to sent him to Lunana. This is quite possibly the most remote school in the world, being located some six days trek from the nearest road, and around 13,000 ft up into the Bhutanese Himalayan mountains. "Ugyen" is none too chuffed with this placement, and when he arrives at his drafty and simple school he longs for the home comforts of his girlfriend and of Thimpu. He is warmly welcomed by the locals, but will their enthusiasm for their own culture, and for the gift of education that he brings them be enough to change his mind? The narrative itself has little by way of jeopardy - we just know how things will pan out, but that doesn't detract from this beautifully shot and characterful study of the life of tribespeople whose lives and traditions have changed little in hundreds of year. What is writ large is the feeling that these folks regard education as a privilege. From God, from the King, from this rather disillusioned teacher - they are determined to learn but not to leave their community, but to better themselves and their families. Why else learn English half way up a mountain?. Pawo Dorji has created a delicate story here offering us magical cinematography and thoroughly engaging characters that cause our teacher to reassess his priorities in a fashion that wilderness might do for many of us, too. Will he return once the winter snows have gone and his school re-opens? I enjoyed this.

Oh so simple, yet oh so sweet. 'Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom' is pretty wholesome, in short. There isn't anything revolutionary about the plot, there aren't any major events across the 100 or so minutes but that doesn't hamper the film at all. It's a breezy watch from beginning to end, with some good acting alongside some lovely visuals of Bhutan. Recommended!