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Filmed in a remote Bhutan village, Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom captures a way of life that is rapidly vanishing. Its Oscar-nominated director talks about ...

This is a film – people cheat.’ But I was adamant about shooting it in Lunana, because I wanted to capture the purity of the place and the people. “The question is, ‘Can we discover in the darkness what we seek in the light?’” For example, in English, I might say, ‘Claire, tell me a story.’ In my language, Dzongkha, I have to say, ‘Claire, please untie a knot for me.’ The whole act of telling a story has this purpose of liberating, freeing and untying.” “Most younger Bhutanese,” says Dorji, “seem to be looking for what they see in the western world, which is represented by the glittering lights of Sydney. “I was in constant clashes with her father, because he wanted her to leave school. The downside is that it is so small and poor – its population was measured at 777,000 in 2021 – that many young people want to leave. That’s why I made the protagonist someone who is searching for his happiness elsewhere.” It has protected itself from the ravages of tourism by charging visitors hundreds of dollars a day just to be there, with the result that it has more unclimbed peaks than anywhere else in the world. It took eight days for Pawo Choyning Dorji to trek up to the location of his debut film, a settlement of 56 people so high in the Himalayas that it had no communication with the world below. The snow lion is losing her home – and when she is gone, she will never return. The scenery is breathtaking but the glaciers are melting and the lakes are drying up. Nominated for the best international film Oscar last year, Lunana records a way of life in