Kathmandu. The first day of the 21st Kathmandu International Mountain Film Festival (KIMF) has concluded with the screening of the documentary ‘Into the Heart of Mountain’.
Directed by Anegri Bosmon, this documentary tells the story of Roshi John Halifax, a leader who embraced Zen Buddhism, along with him in the harsh Himalayan terrain of Humla.
Roshi and his friends go on a long journey to provide health services to some high places in Humla every year. The people of this region are deprived of basic health services where the presence of the state is low, where Roshi and his group have been providing health services for four decades.
The documentary presents the struggle of a group that provides health care by traveling for weeks to a mountain more than 18,000 feet high. In this process, along with the natural beauty of Humla, the routine, lifestyle, and culture of the people there, the problems of climate change faced by the people of that region are also exposed.
During the journey, Moolpatra Roshi says that when she came to Humla 40 years ago, the villages like Ranikhark, Chala and others are not the same today. Locals complain that there is not enough cultivation due to drought. She says that we should be worried that the village is gradually turning into a desert along with the rising temperature due to climate change.
On the first day of the festival, before ‘Into the Heart of Mountain’, two short Nepali films ‘Nepali Fixon’ and ‘Moti, Dubli, Kali, Gori’ were screened. Devendra Khatri’s ‘Nepali Fix’ is the story of a drug mafia who is robbed from within his own gang.
Directed by Nirvana Bhandari, ‘Moti, Dubli, Kali, Gori’ is a documentary that takes a dig at the definition of beauty set by Nepali society regarding physical characteristics and texture. It depicts the experiences of the director himself and other female characters.
More than 60 films from 22 countries will be screened at the festival, which will last until May 20.
