London Film Festival review #3
This first feature by
director Ridham Janve is one for films of slow cinema only. Happily, I am one
of these. The film is about some shepherds living an isolated existence high up
in the Dhauladhar region of the Indian Himalayas. The two main characters are
an old man who complains constantly about everything and his younger helper,
who deals with the loneliness and boredom by drinking himself senseless. There
is some humour to be had from these two, but this is no comedy.
One day, a military jet
crashes in the mountains. Hearing that the authorities are offering a reward, a
number of the shepherds go in search of it. Of course, the crashed plane
represents the gold-laden sheep of the title, which comes from an old Indian
parable curiously similar to that of the Greek myth of the Golden Fleece.
However, this is certainly no Jason and
the Argonauts and, if I have suggested that this film has anything
resembling a plot, I apologise. Those seeking a conventional narrative should
look elsewhere. At the screening I attended, an elderly couple huffed and
puffed their way out after half an hour but, for those with a more open mind,
this film offers considerable rewards.
No other feature film
in the history of cinema has been set in this remote and extraordinary region
of the Earth, and Janve and cameraman Saurabh Monga have captured some very
beautiful and haunting images that linger in the mind long after the film is
over. The amount of equipment they were able to take to the location was
severely limited, and a total absence of electricity meant they had to charge
their cameras using solar power. Many of the things they had planned to shoot
apparently turned out to be impossible, so the fact that they managed to complete
such a fully-formed piece of art is remarkable.
All of the actors
featured are non-professionals from the Gaddi community; playing versions of
themselves, Janve elicits entirely natural performances from all. The subtle ambient
score by Jered Sorkin never intrudes, but accentuates the mysterious power of
nature – this is a place where humans seem about as significant as ants as they
scramble among the broken boulders strewn across the mountain slopes, and where
man is an intruder in a landscape that will endure long after he is gone.
A great film.
No comments:
Post a Comment