For his first feature film, Bhutanese director Pawo Choyning Dorji went to shoot in an isolated region of his country, in the heart of the Himalayas. His initiation story, featuring a teacher sent from the city, celebrates the virtues of Buddhism against a backdrop of magnificent landscapes.
The School at the End of the World is a story of resilience. It is a film that contrasts contemporary reality with ancient wisdom. It opens with a juxtaposition, an omen.
In the heights of the [Himalayan] mountains, a woman hums “Yak Lebi Lhadar,” a yak herders’ song about separation and sacrifice. In the city, a grandmother tries to rouse her grandson Ugyen from his sleep, who is wearing a T-shirt with the inscription Gross National Happiness, an index developed by Bhutan to measure the well-being of its population.
Ugyen, played by Sherab Dorji [unrelated to the director], dreams of the West, particularly distant Australia. One year before the end of the five-year contract that binds him to the government, he is transferred to one of the most remote places in the world: the hamlet of Lunana, nestled amidst snowy peaks. There, his students, including the spirited Pem Zam, tell him that “a teacher touches the future.” Aspiring to lead different lives and become something other than yak herders or cordyceps collectors, they repeat after him the Dzongkha alphabet [a Sino-Tibetan language and the official language of Bhutan].
The movement of the camera during Ugyen’s ascent to the village mirrors his spiritual journey.
The School at the End of the World was filmed with non-professional actors and villagers who had never seen a single film.
