Khyentse Norbu, the Tibetan director of “Travellers & Magicians,” is both a member of Tibet’s Buddhist monk aristocracy and a devoted film buff/cineaste whose debut feature, “The Cup,” put Tibetan cinema on the map. That high position makes his great sympathy for ordinary people and their grand illusions all the more poignant–and it’s a key attraction of “Travellers & Magicians,” a charming, quirky road movie set in spectacular mountain locations.
“The Cup” was a semi-autobiographical comic film about Tibetan monk pupils who were passionate World Cup soccer fans. The people in “Travellers & Magicians”–who include another monk–are more sectarian and ordinary. Their backdrop, however, is anything but: the isolated Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, the country that inspired James Hilton to invent the mythical Shangri-La in his novel “Lost Horizon.” And the Hollywood Shangri-La of Frank Capra’s 1937 film is not as stunning as the Bhutan we see here: a country of steep mountain sides, glorious greenery and golden sunlight and vast, misty cloud formations swallowing the peaks. As a travelogue, “Travellers & Magician,” the first film ever made in Bhutan, is a wonder.
But Norbu is a first-class storyteller and humanist filmmaker as well. (His main cinematic models include poetic realists Yasujiro Ozu and Satyajit Ray, and his mentor was Bernardo Bertolucci.) He also is a bit of a hipster. The quintet of travelers, on their way down from the mountains, is headed by a shaggy young local town official, Dondup (Tshewang Dendup), a city boy bored with his rural assignment and anxious to make his way to the land of his dreams, America. Dondup, a rock ‘n’ roll devotee with an old radio, begins his odyssey when he misses the bus to Bhutan’s capital city, Thimpu. Dejected and infuriated, he is gradually thrown in with the other hitchhikers: a sly young monk (Sonam Kinga); an old apple-seller (Ap Dochu); a lovely young girl (Sonam Lhamo); and her father (Dasho Adab Sangye).
As they travel, the monk spins an obviously cautionary tale about another discontented young man, Tashi (Lhakpa Dorji), who, lost in the mountains, comes upon a beautiful young woman Deki (Deki Yangzom) and her reclusive old husband (Gomchen Penjore) and faces murderous temptation. The notion is a simple one: As Dondup travels, he gets more humanized, more receptive to the close-at-hand beauties of Bhutan and less to his slick, faraway vision of America. Norbu tells the story so well and has such a flair for poetic imagery and robust performance, that we watch spellbound. There is magic in both this film and Bhutan, and it’s a joy to catch it.
———-
“Travellers & Magicians” ((star)(star)(star)1/2) plays Fri.-Thu. at the Music Box Theatre, 3733 N. Southport Ave. Call 773-871-6604 or visit www.musicboxtheatre.com. No MPAA rating (parents cautioned for brief nudity and mature themes). In Dzongkha (Bhutan dialect), with English subtitles. Running time: 1:48.
