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Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom

Submissions for Best International Feature (Academy Awards 2022)

2019

Pawo Choyning Dorji

Sherab Dorji, Pem Zam, Gurung Ugyen, Tshering Dorji ...

6.8

1,265

Drama A young teacher in modern Bhutan, Ugyen, shirks his duties while planning to go to Australia to become a singer. As a reprimand, his superiors send him to the most remote school in the world, a glacial Himalayan village called Lunana, to complete his service. He finds himself exiled from his Westernized comforts after an arduous 8 day trek just to get there. There he finds no electricity, no textbooks, not even a blackboard. Though ... [+]

	Media	Author	Review
		Richard Kuipers Variety	"Gloriously filmed on staggeringly beautiful locations around the most remote school on Earth and wonderfully performed (...) this big-hearted crowd-pleaser marks a bright debut"
		Carlos Aguilar Los Angeles Times	"A charmer from Bhutan, 'Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom' warms the heart"
		Allan Hunter Screendaily	"The story arc of 'Lunana' may offer few surprises but Dorji handles it with confidence and buckets of charm. There is a simplicity to the storytelling that is highly appealing"
		Stephen Romei The Australian	"There are lots of gently beautiful moments in 'Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom' (...) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"
		Peter Bradshaw The Guardian	"We don't get that much discussion of how things might change for [the children] or for the village. Yet there is something winning in this calm, walking-pace drama –and the landscape is amazing (...) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"
		Isaac Feldberg rogerebert.com	"A welcome spotlight on both Bhutan and its philosophy of 'gross national happiness', which informs the film's narrative (...) Rating: ★★★ (out of 4)"
		Nicolas Rapold The New York Times	"[A] The gently efficient story"
		Valerie Complex Deadline	"Its simplicity makes the film charming and earthy (...) Ugyen’s emotional journey is well designed and executed through his arc"
		Sheri Linden The Hollywood Reporter	"The basic trajectory of Lunana (...) But Dorji avoids predictable turns, instead building the drama toward an affecting tangle of feelings and an open-ended promise of transformation."
		Sahir Avik D’souza Time Out	"Sweet and warm, if a bit predictable (...) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"
		Jared Mobarak The Film Stage	"'Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom' captures the juxtaposition of big-city living and small-town surviving in a way that resonates beyond its cultural specificity"
		Ronda Racha Penrice The Wrap	"A reminder of how cinema can connect us to what matters most in life, sharing a specific story from a part of the world most of us will never experience, but zoning in on matters of the heart that resonate in a universal way"

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