Review | Berlin 2024: Shambhala movie review – first Nepalese film ever to be selected in competition is a transcendent masterpiece
- This Nepalese film follows Pema (played by Thinley Lhamo), a Nepalese woman searching for her husband, who disappeared on a trip to Lhasa
- A film like no other, Shambala is unhurried and reflects the director’s fascination with Eastern rituals and symbols
4/5 stars
The first Nepalese movie ever selected for the Berlin Film Festival’s main competition, Shambhala is a meditative and undeniably beautiful experience. Transfixing shots of the Himalayas form the backdrop for this spiritual tale of marriage, motherhood and the pressures of monastic life.
With the title (which doesn’t even appear on screen until 50 minutes in) alluding to a place of reincarnation, the film centres on Pema (Thinley Lhamo), a woman who begins the film about to enter a polyandrous marriage with Tashi (Tenzin Dalha), and his two siblings, the monk Karma (Sonam Topden) and the much younger Dawa (Karma Wangyal).
“I’ll make my new family very happy,” she says, beaming, and there is a rustic charm about their simple cohabitation. “Finally this house feels alive,” we’re told, as Pema cooks a delicious-looking spicy stew.
But events take hold when Pema becomes pregnant and, worse, Tashi disappears after a trading trip to Lhasa, not to return. “Now I’m the man of the house,” says the increasingly unruly school-age Dawa.
