One of the five nominees for the International Oscar: “Lonana has a yak in class”
This special film features breathtaking views, a cast of actors from a remote village in the Himalayas, and a clever, delicate and great direction. In other words, if you have not yet seen the Oscar-nominated film, it’s time to take a few hours and dive into an extraordinary experience.
“Lunana has a yak in the classroom” comes to us from the small, isolated Bhutan state and the plot follows Ogin, a young urban man sent to attend the most remote school in the world. Eugene dreams of becoming a singer, and he wants to move to Australia, but he is obliged to finish another year as a civil servant, so exactly he is sent to the village of Lunana, which is in the Himalayas.
The film actually follows the hero’s journey, from his journey to the remote village, public transportation and a week on foot, to his acclimatization at the school in question. It reaches a place that has only 58 residents. The school has only nine, and no books, no board, and in fact, not many, except for a few students that all they want to do is learn something about this world.
Ogin falls in love with these nine children pretty quickly, and in fact, it is impossible not to. They enter the heart within a few minutes, and become the emotional charge of the entire film. The film features stunning landscapes, human warmth, and simplicity, in a world of alienation and technology and progress, and in that sense it is so rare in the local landscape. So much so that in the cold winter season, which comes in a short time, the only way to keep warm is through yak feces.
So in fact we meet another protagonist of the film, a big, sleepy yak who sits in a classroom and rests, and mostly eats, in order to provide fire-lighting feces that will heat the homes and school. Eugene is in fact slowly undergoing a process of maturation, and perhaps most of all, a reconnection to its roots.
As mentioned, a significant portion of the cast cast are locals, who have never seen a camera. It adds to the whole film such an amazing and different charm and refinement, and above all an authentic and natural feeling. “Lonana Has a Yak in the Classroom” is not a film that seeks to convey criticism, to make a message accessible, but to present a small, authentic picture, a human story, and a journey, making it so special and touching, and well worth a look.
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