'Himalaya' tells the story of Himalayan peasants undertaking a perilous trek in order to trade the goods they need to survive the winter. It could therefore have been a realistic film about the everyday hardship of life in this beautiful but hostile part of the world. Instead it combines this everyday setting with a banal, clichéd foreground plot involving love, and the succession of tribal leadership, which never exceeds the sophistication you'd expect in a fairy-story. It's hard to see what the French film-makers involved in this production were attempting to achieve: the result is neither action-packed nor truly authentic, leaving the viewer with little to do but admire the mountainous backdrop.

"Himalaya" is about as exotic as films get. Using indigenous people in a remote and harsh corner of Nepal (Dolpa),an adventurous French director (Valli) created a film about a superstitious and aging tribal chief who leads a caravan of Yaks through hazardous Himalayan reaches to trade salt for the grain required to sustain his people. The film is interesting inasmuch as it uses native nonactors in an extremely remote region of great beauty which is seldom seen up close and personal. The result, however, is not great drama and the scenics, though beautiful, are less breathtaking than I had expected. In fact, I found the "The Making Of..." featurette on board the DVD more interesting than the film itself. Considering the low entertainment yield of this ambitious project, it would probably have worked better as a documentary or travelogue. Nonetheless, this exotic-for-the-sake-of-exotica film should be much appreciated by those into films about foreign cultures or with a special interest in the Nepali. (B)

One reviewer asks if we (Westerners) can ever see the world through another's (non-Westerner) eyes. Good question. There's no 'yes' or 'no' answer because we can't get into people's heads. The cultural viewpoint from the standpoint of the actor in the cultural setting is always different from the outsider. As intruders into that world, we can observe, wonder and learn. Yes, indeed like voyeurs, my friend but these are not "primitive" people. These are people who have adapted to a way of life and developed means of coping with it. Since many of these people live isolated lives, the cultural diffusion of technology invades their worlds slowly. (We anthropologists see this fact as a mercy) This film is a wonder. As one reviewer asks, can we watch a film for over a 100 minutes of people walking? It depends. What do you want? Adventure? Rent a Hollywood spawn with phony chases, lots of CGI and god-awful writing. This is a simple story but one basic to the human condition. Loss, death, coming of age, transition, love and resurrection. This film is full of archetypes but without the contrived devices found in so many Western films. The adventure is that of the daily lives of these people who live always on the edge. It is most unfair to judge this simple tale and its depiction from the same viewpoint of another mythic journey. There's only the violence of nature and the triumph of human will to survive-- not happily ever after, but just for another day. As an anthropologist who spent over 25 years working with pastoralists (nomadic herders) in Africa, Central Asia, South America and the Middle East, I was delighted with this unpretentious story. I never worked with yak or reindeer [I highly recommend the exceptional "Pathfinder" for an excellent view of the Lapps]herders and the presentation certainly squared with everything I've read about these dynamic, wonderful people.