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Foreign filmmakers sell Nepal as a paradise of ‘sob stories’—and Nepali filmmakers follow
By Onlykhabar News Media
Sat 17 October, 2020 ( about 5 years ago )
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Films are cultural snapshots of their time.
This choice of picking aspects to highlight or hide lies entirely with the filmmaker. Take any film, look closely, and you will find contemporary values, beliefs, and anxieties prevalent in that particular society staring right at you. “Watch commercial Nepali films from the 90s, and you’ll know exactly what city-dwelling filmmakers thought of village folks,” says filmmaker Deepak Rauniyar. The makers chose to depict the people from villages as crude and illiterate, while in reality they’re not.”
“A lot of Nepali films from that era [90s-early 2000s] have a village-meets-city narrative. The makers chose to depict the people from villages as crude and illiterate, while in reality they’re not.” Even in international films, questionable representation of people belonging to different regions, political backgrounds, and religions is widespread: during the Cold War (during the 70s-90s) Hollywood made villains out of European militants. But for filmmakers to repeat such stereotypes is dangerous, as films contribute to shaping the identity of countries and cultures on a global platform.
For years now, films based on Nepal have been introduced to the world audience through foreign eyes. Foreign films in this regard are made by and for foreign audiences. And in these films, Nepal is either a land of mountains--like in Into thin Air: Death on Everest (1997), Everest (2015), The Climb (2017); or Buddha’s Birthplace, as in Little Buddha (1993) and 7 years in Tibet (1997). The film is a 15-minute, Nepali language fictional take of an innocent, impoverished teenager who works as a parachute packer in Pokhara.
The primary breadwinner for her family, Ashmina needs permission to use her own income and needs her mother (Sadhana Bhandari) to wash her hair (which is honestly very strange). The film culminates with Ashmina turning violent and fighting for some money. She cuts the paracord and walks away. I travelled to Pokhara to complete my training as a paragliding pilot. I was immediately captivated by the young children who were working in the landing field and instantly knew that I would one day return to Nepal to capture their story on film”.
However, despite all the accolades the film has collected at prestigious festivals, it’s difficult for Nepalis to share the enthusiasm, and Nepali filmmakers agree. “There’s a tendency of privileged individuals to portray the people of other cultures as stupid,” says Rauniyar, adding, “Why would a teenager need her mother to wash her hair for her?” In journalism, this approach is commonly referred to as ‘parachute journalism’, where someone from an entirely different beat reports on issues and places they have little idea of. Berenson’s film reinforces a falsely prevalent stereotype that Nepal’s identity is only that of a poor country; hence stories that come from here can only be about the poor, hungry, and underprivileged individuals, basically sob stories.
