Nepali film set to make history at Berlin International Film Festival: ‘our cinema is ready to compete’

The film tells the story of Pema, a pregnant woman living in a remote village in Nepal’s Dolpa region who is in a polyandrous relationship with three brothers.

After one of her husbands goes missing and the village raises questions about the legitimacy of her unborn child, Pema embarks on a search mission through the harsh Himalayan terrain with another of her husbands, a journey that turns into an “odyssey of self-discovery and liberation”.

Shambhala, from director Min Bahadur Bham, is premiering at the main competition of BIFF, which takes place from February 15-25. It is the first time a film from Nepal is being screened in the festival’s competition section, providing a much-needed morale boost to the country’s film industry, which is struggling to earn both commercial success and critical acclaim.

“It’s a huge achievement for me and Nepali cinema,” Bham told This Week in Asia. “The film is the culmination of my reflections and curiosity – about spirituality, reincarnation and polyandry, a culture I saw while growing up in Mugu [northwest Nepal].”

Featuring dialogue in Nepali and Tibetan languages, Shambhala offers a window into the life and culture of the remote mountain areas, which Bham said aligns with his values as a both a filmmaker and a student of anthropology. He said it was important to tell the stories of local and indigenous communities as authentically as possible.

In the past decade, many independent filmmakers in Nepal have attempted to capture stories from non-urban settings, piquing the interests of both local and foreign audiences and setting them apart from formulas copied from commercial Hindi films. A new league of filmmakers, including Tsering Rhitar Sherpa, Deepak Rauniyar and Nabin Subba, have offered audiences films with true-to-life characters and stories while introducing Nepali cinema to international festival circuits.