Directed by Icíar Bollaín
I was perusing my local DVD shop for something to watch at the weekend when the sight of mountains caught my eye. I am a sucker for anything to do with the Himalayas. I have to admit that the English name of the film put me off as it seemed a bit cheesy. Judging-the-DVD-by-the-cover score, -2. But I am glad I took it home with me.
It turns out that this film from 2011 (released outside of Spain in 2012) was originally a book, one that I will now seek out in order to get the full details of the story. The basics are that Laia (played by Verónica Echegui) went to Nepal for a bit of a teaching adventure at a local school and ended up going it alone to build her own school for disadvantaged children. The interpretation of the story does have a few predictable and, yes slightly cheesy, elements to it such as the character being surprised by the poverty and bureaucracy she encounters, idealistic teaching scenes and a bit of romance but I still enjoyed it if only to escape into the scenes of Nepal for a couple of hours. There is a segment where she hikes for a few days to a remote part of the country which provides a nice dose of eye candy for mountain people. If you are one of those people, you might enjoy this film for that reason alone and, if you are a teacher the film might just remind you why you engage in such a job.
Have you seen this film? What did you think?
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