The world is a fine place and worth
fighting for - Ernest Hemingway
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Of Movies and Bravery - Review of the talk by Daniel Lak of the BBC and in Nepali Times
It
was anything but chilly inside the Russian Cultural Centre (RCC) earlier this
month for the first ever Kathmandu International Mountain Film Festival (kimff).
At times the atmosphere was downright heated, as film-makers from abroad found
themselves raked over the proverbial coals for using Nepal as a backdrop for a
French/Polish/Slovene/whatever feature film. But such outbursts were rare and
generally good-spirited. By any measure, the festival was a roaring success. Its
headline films, Genghis Blues from America, Mukundo from Nepal and the locally
filmed but heavily French Caravan, were sold out well in advance. There were few
seats available for the 40-odd other films on display at the rcc. Voted the
audience favourite was Genghis Blues, a fascinating documentary about an
American blues musician who develops a passion for the eerie, almost inhuman,
throat-singing of the people of the central Asian land of Tuva. The blues man,
Paul Pena, is blind and the film gets almost embarrassingly intimate with him as
he travels to Tuva-somewhere between Mongolia and the middle of nowhere to take
part in a throat-singing competition. Pena's deep basso profondo lends itself
perfectly to the lowest pitched type of throat-singing and he wins his category
at the competition. He develops a passion for the Tuvan's favourite
tipple-fermented mare's milk-and even performs a shamanic ceremony to exorcise
demons whose influence is overshadowing the trip.
If it all sounds a bit too exotic, it's not. I'm still thrilled and
troubled by many of the things I saw in Genghis Blues. It helped dispel my
winter blues better than any peg of mare's milk. An
important highlight Kathmandu International Film Festival was a talk by the
great Indian mountaineer and writer, Harish Kapadia. He was booked by the
festival organisers to speak about his pet project, the creation of a peace park
in the Siachen region to balance the rival claims by India and Pakistan to the
world's most pointless battleground. But, on November 11, Harish Kapadia's son,
Nawang, was killed by infiltrating militants in Kashmir. Nawang Kapadia was an
officer in the 3rd Gorkha Rifles of the Indian Army and he died fighting for his
country, and trying to save the life of a Nepali soldier, Havaldar Chitra
Bahadur Thapa. Sadly for me, I couldn't attend Harish Kapadia's talk to pay my
respects and listen to his wise words, but trusted friends tell me that it was
an immensely dignified and moving occasion. He had insisted on coming to
Kathmandu despite his bereavement and he spoke with vigour and passion. "As
a mountaineer and a lover of the glacier, " he said, "I can only pray
that the powers-that-be will listen to the anguish of the glacier and the
soldiers serving on it." Amen to that, Shree Kapadia, and my condolences
and admiration to you and your family. (By Daniel Lak: BBC and Outlook correspondent in Kathmandu.) From OUTLOOK
magazine 25 December 2000 issue. |