Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom

Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom (Dzongkha: ལུང་ནག་ན, Lung nag na) is a 2019 Bhutanese drama film written and directed by Pawo Choyning Dorji in his feature debut. It follows Ugyen Dorji, a reluctant young teacher from Thimphu who is posted for his final year of government service to a one-room school in Lunana, a yak-herding settlement in Gasa Dzongkhag reached only after a week of trekking at altitudes near 4,800 metres.

At the 94th Academy Awards in March 2022, Lunana became the first Bhutanese film to receive an Oscar nomination, competing for Best International Feature Film against Drive My Car (Japan), Flee (Denmark), The Hand of God (Italy) and The Worst Person in the World (Norway). The award went to Drive My Car.^[1]

Plot

Ugyen Dorji (Sherab Dorji) is a twenty-something trainee teacher in Thimphu who has lost interest in the classroom and dreams of emigrating to Australia to pursue a career as a singer. With a year of mandatory government service still owed, his supervisors punish his indifference by posting him to Lunana Primary School, described in the film as the most remote school in the world. From the roadhead at Gasa he must walk for eight days with a team of yak herders and porters to reach the village.

When Ugyen arrives, exhausted and unprepared, he finds a small stone building with no blackboard, no paper, no electricity and a class of children led by Pem Zam, the nine-year-old class captain. The villagers, headed by Asha Jinpa (Kunzang Wangdi), greet him with the traditional reverence accorded a teacher, whom they regard as one who "touches the future". Initially Ugyen tries to turn back, but the headman persuades him to stay.

Over the following weeks he grows attached to his pupils and to Saldon (Kelden Lhamo Gurung), a young woman who sings traditional yak-offering songs on the ridge above the village. The villagers gift him a yak named Norbu to live at the back of the classroom — an old custom in which the animal's dung fuels the stove and its presence is considered a blessing. When winter approaches and the villagers must descend to lower pastures, Ugyen leaves with them, eventually making his way to Sydney. The film closes with him singing in a bar, hesitating mid-song, then shifting into the Layakha yak-song Saldon taught him in the mountains.

Cast

The cast was drawn almost entirely from non-professional performers, including residents of Lunana itself.^[2]

• Sherab Dorji as Ugyen Dorji, the young teacher
• Ugyen Norbu Lhendup as Michen, a village elder and guide
• Kelden Lhamo Gurung as Saldon, the yak-song singer
• Pem Zam as Pem Zam, the class captain
• Kunzang Wangdi as Asha Jinpa, the village headman
• Tshering Dorji as Singye
• Sonam Tashi as Tandin
• Tsheri Zom as Ugyen's grandmother

Pem Zam, the child actor at the centre of the film, is from Lunana and had never seen a film before being cast. She had never experienced electricity and was being raised by her grandmother, mirroring aspects of her on-screen role.^[3]

Production

Pawo Choyning Dorji, a photographer and former assistant to the filmmaker-lama Khyentse Norbu, wrote the screenplay after a visit to Lunana in which he became interested in the difficulty of recruiting teachers for high-altitude postings. He cast the school's pupils and the surrounding villagers in the roles they play on screen, with the lead role of Ugyen going to Sherab Dorji, a Thimphu musician who had not acted before.

Filming took place entirely on location in Lunana, at elevations reported around 4,800 metres. The crew trekked in for eight days with equipment carried on yaks and mules. Because the village has no grid electricity, the production relied on solar panels to charge cameras and batteries, with shooting schedules dictated by the available daylight and charge. The yak in the classroom is a real Lunana yak; the animal was led indoors each day during shooting.^[4]

Cinematography was by Jigme Tenzing, with Taiwanese editor Hsiao-Yun Ku cutting the film and the veteran Taiwanese sound designer Tu Duu-chih — longtime collaborator with Hou Hsiao-hsien — credited on sound. The score is sparse; much of the music in the film comes from the characters themselves, particularly the traditional yak-offering song sung by Saldon. Producing partners included Stephanie Lai, Dorji's long-standing Hong Kong–based producer, alongside Jia Honglin and Steven Xiang.

Release

The film premiered at the BFI London Film Festival on 5 October 2019 and subsequently played at Busan, Palm Springs, Vancouver and other international festivals through 2019 and 2020. Bhutan initially submitted the film to the Academy Awards for the 2020 ceremony, but it was withdrawn on a technicality; a second attempt for the 2021 ceremony was rejected because the Academy had not recognised Bhutan's selection committee, the country not having submitted a film since The Cup in 1999.^[5]

After the Bhutanese selection committee was accredited, the film was submitted for the 94th Academy Awards and shortlisted in December 2021. Samuel Goldwyn Films acquired North American rights in January 2022, ahead of the nomination announcement, and released the film theatrically in the United States on 11 February 2022.^[6] Distribution in other territories followed through 2022 and 2023, with unusually long theatrical runs reported in Japan and Brazil.

Reception

Critical reception was strongly positive. The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes records an approval rating of around 98 per cent, with an average rating of 7.6 out of 10; Metacritic reports a weighted score of 76 out of 100, indicating "generally favourable" reviews.^[7] In The Hollywood Reporter, Deborah Young praised the film's patience and the unforced naturalism of its non-professional cast; Variety, Sight & Sound and Screen International responded similarly, with several reviewers noting the landscape photography and the absence of sentimentality in the film's treatment of rural poverty.

The Oscar nomination, announced on 8 February 2022, was received in Bhutan as a national event. Kuensel and BBS covered the nomination extensively, and the Prime Minister's Office and the Royal Government publicly congratulated the production. Pem Zam attended the ceremony at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood on 27 March 2022 as part of the Bhutanese delegation, becoming one of the most photographed figures at the event. Drive My Car won the award.

Themes

The film is set against the background of a real contemporary concern in Bhutan: the emigration of young Bhutanese, particularly to Australia on student visas. Ugyen's ambition to leave for Sydney — and the quiet ambivalence with which the film treats that ambition — is a direct reference to what has since become the largest outflow in Bhutanese history, with tens of thousands of young people departing for work abroad. The film does not moralise against the decision; Ugyen in the final scene is in Australia, and the film offers neither condemnation nor triumph.

The figure of the teacher in Bhutanese tradition — addressed as lopen and held in a status close to that of a lama — underpins the contrast between Ugyen's indifference and the villagers' reverence. The gift of the yak, the reading of Ugyen's posting as an honour rather than a punishment, and the repeated line that a teacher "touches the future" reflect values the film locates in rural Bhutan rather than in Thimphu. Reviewers linked these elements to the state philosophy of Gross National Happiness, though the film itself does not invoke the term.

Landscape functions as a third character. The eight-day trek into Lunana is shown almost in real time; weather, altitude and isolation shape the drama as much as any dialogue. The film avoids the postcard compositions common in Himalayan travelogues and keeps the camera close to the working bodies of porters, students and yaks.

Significance

The Academy Award nomination was Bhutan's first in any category. Earlier Bhutanese features submitted for Oscar consideration included Khyentse Norbu's The Cup (1999) and Travellers and Magicians (2003) and Khyentse Norbu's Hema Hema: Sing Me a Song While I Wait (2016), none of which reached the shortlist. Lunana's nomination raised the profile of the Bhutanese industry internationally and is widely credited, alongside the subsequent shortlisting of Pawo Choyning Dorji's second feature The Monk and the Gun at the 96th Academy Awards, with opening foreign distribution pipelines for Bhutanese cinema.

The film also brought sustained international attention to Lunana and the Layap-speaking communities of northern Gasa. Reporting from Bhutanese and foreign outlets in 2022 described increased visitor interest in the region, as well as concerns among development workers about pressure on a fragile high-altitude community whose population had been declining before the film. Pem Zam's travel to Los Angeles became a parallel story in its own right, covered at length by BBS and international wire services.

Within Bhutan, the film has been cited in discussions about teacher recruitment to remote postings and about the wider question of youth emigration. Neither issue has been resolved, and both have grown sharper since 2022 as departures to Australia have accelerated.

See also

• Pawo Choyning Dorji
• Cinema of Bhutan
• The Monk and the Gun
• Lunana (gewog)
• Khyentse Norbu
• Gross National Happiness

References

1. "Oscars: Bhutan Gets First International Feature Nod With 'Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom'" — The Hollywood Reporter
2. "A yak, a ticked-off teacher, an Oscar nomination for Bhutan" — NPR Goats and Soda, March 2022
3. "Pem Zam, Lunana's young amateur actor transcending boundaries" — Bhutan Broadcasting Service
4. "Bhutan's 'Lunana' Had an Arduous, Unexpected Journey to the Oscars" — The Hollywood Reporter
5. "Lunana: Bhutan's first Oscar nominee explores 'happiness index'" — Al Jazeera, February 2022
6. "Bhutan's Oscar Entry 'Lunana: A Yak in The Classroom' Finds North American Home With Samuel Goldwyn Films" — Variety
7. "Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom" — Rotten Tomatoes
8. "Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom" — Wikipedia (production and credits)
9. "How 'Lunana: A Yak In The Classroom' Became A Surprise Oscar Nominee" — Deadline
10. "'Lunana' Makes Long Trek to Oscars From Remote Corner of Bhutan" — Variety