Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom

Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom (2019)

ལུང་ནག་ན

Find what you seek in a place you never expected

A teacher, in search of inspiration, travels to the most remote school in the world, where he ends up realizing how important his job is and appreciating the value of yak dung.

Date of release
2019-11-16
TMDB
7.4 / 10 (238)
Runtime
1h 49m
Genres
Drama
Director
Pawo Choyning Dorji

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Awards: 0 · Nominations: 2

Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom is a 2019 Bhutanese drama film directed by Pawo Choyning Dorji in his feature directorial debut. The film had its world premiere at the BFI London Film Festival. It was a nominee for Best International Feature Film at the 94th Academy Awards.

Production

Pawo Choyning Dorji, ... spent a year and a half preparing for filming, hauling in all of the necessary equipment and overseeing the construction of housing for his crew. He used the time to get to know the cast of locals he hired to play themselves, and slipped details of their lives into the script.

"They'd never set foot in a cinema or seen a movie," [Dorji] says. "They acted naturally, as they were, and it worked out in a beautiful way."

The weather conditions are harsh, and it is always raining or snowing. There's only a two-month window when the sun shines — in September and October. Even though September and October are considered pleasant months, it was still very cold.

The production was made carbon negative, by the use of solar panels and batteries.

It's ironic though. Until the last day of filming, I was wracked by worry over whether I was doing the right thing by intruding into the villagers' lives. When I left Lunana, the village was being modernized. The government was laying roads and erecting telephone poles. The villagers were happy. Their standard of living was bound to improve. People would be more connected.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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