Under Construction - UC Films

English (subtitled), 81 min, 2008, India

Jigme Norbu Lachenpa, a young entrepreneur is keen on promoting tourism in Lachen, his home village, a settlement of semi nomadic tribes trying to strike balance between the Buddha and BRO (Border Roads Organisation). Jigme and his friends want to take us to a corner of the world where telephone and satellite TV have not yet penetrated. Rocks and wind, snow and darkness make perennial war and peace. People come home for the Lossar (New Year) festival, carrying the City in tiny gift-wrapped packages; Dish TV and Handycam. Paradoxes haunt present-day Bhutia societies grappling with shifting memories and traces of ancestral rituals; lives and times lost and found in contemporary fiction. An entire community skirted by oblivion prepares to take on a demonic icy winter. Barren pastures transform into habitable territory; at the heart of epic wilderness one consecrates space as homeland.

Screenings:
Dokfest, Munich 2009 (Horizonte section);