Journey from Zanskar (2010) User Reviews

An Uplifting Documentary

[rnc55 · 10/10 · 4 November 2010]

I saw this documentary at opening night of the South Asian Film Festival in San Francisco. It shows Buddhist monks bringing children from the mountaintop enclave of Zanskar in the hinterlands of India on a harrowing trip through snow-choked passes to schools where they have a chance to become teachers, monks and nuns.

Seeing people working together their whole lives to help each other in one of the most isolated, harshest areas on earth was a humbling experience. And the Buddhist monks who sacrifice their own safety to help these people survive the encroaching outside world is so uplifting after being exposed to all the slimy religious televangelist types in the United States. The scenery is beautiful, but the people are more beautiful. But it's devastating to realize that these kinds of people are the ones whose way of life is being threatened by globalization, monetization and McDonaldization.

Documentaries like this one always raise the question of why the filmmakers, who obviously have the resources to do so, don't just help the people they are filming rather than record their struggles for the entertainment of comfortable moviegoers. There is no easy answer. But the point of documentaries is to show what is happening, not to change what is happening. And it was clear from the q&a with the filmmaker afterward that he is trying to help these people through his involvement with a nonprofit organization. So-- it is possible to both record the reality AND change the reality-- but the two things do not have to be done at the same time.

This movie made me want to volunteer at the new school that is being built in Zanskar. Pretty effective.

A great documentary!

[Roving_eye · 10/10 · 9 March 2011]

I just chanced upon this title in my elevator while coming back to work. They were showing it at my building for Tuesday Movie Nights. Having been to Ladakh and the adjoining regions I felt eager to watch this. I grew up in North India, in a valley in the Himalayas. Though quite far from the region depicted, I can feel for the people in the film. I must say that the director and his team have done more than justice. In a country hard on resources per person, and with an innate respect for education, I can totally relate to the plight and trials of the actors in the film. The director has brought out the conflicts of family values and togetherness, with the desire to achieve and learn for the betterment of individual, the culture and the society, excellently. The movie oscillates between hope, the sense of community, the sense of uplifting your loved ones, the joy of life, ambition and emotions that go with it all, in a manner that few can achieve. All this is supplemented beautifully with the amazing background of Zanskar and Ladakh; one of the highest plateaus of the world, and a desert to boot. It is also one of the remotest and most difficult to access areas to be found. The stark barren haunting landscape juxtaposes seamlessly with the simplicity and honour of the main protagonists, who's only aim is to provide the younger of their people a better life. I've been from Manali to Leh by road, and its truly an amazing journey. I flew back from Leh to Delhi, and looking down all that is visible are vast and lonely colourful undulating mountains with snow covered peaks. Colourful because the lack of vegetation and the ensuing erosion have stripped the mountains to their underlying mineral ores. Its hard to believe that human settlements actually live in these areas. But when people from the same communities rise above their duty to risk life and limb for purposes so close to the heart, what we get is the Journey from Zanskar.