I saw the Small Kingdom of Lo and a short film entitled Maroloja that preceeding the deatured screning. The Kingdom of Lo is in the Mustang region of Nepal surrounded by the Himalayan mountains and in particular focused on the village of Tsarang.
The cinematography of the Nepalese landscape was an amazing backdrop to the 3 main protagonsists in the story -- a nun, an older man and a young man. The Q&A with the filmmaker at the end of the screening gave an even better opportunity to relate to the film and add context. The film presented traditional, antiquated ways of living in the remote village with other influences of modern day world that reach the village by helicopter or occasional trading. The theme of the story highlights that although absolutely a remote village -- difficult to find paid work, limited electricity, limited telephone and no road to connect them to Kathmandu or over the mountain range - each character articulates a desire to always return "home" to their village. Each character identifies why they value traveling outside of the village, but only to enhance how that would help them when they return to Tsarang and their family.
There was also a representative from the Rubin Museum who was a subject matter expert on this area of Nepal. After fielding a question from the audience, he admitted that his museum is interested in the "portable art" that could be loaned so that a New York exhibit could be hosted. He described his effort to work the "King of Lo" to catolgue all the wonderful art he has seen and hopes that what is portable could travel for a featured exhibit.
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