"Chuu..." shouts Tshomo passing a traditional wooden cup filled with water. "Oh water," smiles Michael and takes the cup.

"Wotor?" repeats Tshomo making a funny face. The audience roars in laughter.
The comedy of a yak herder in Laya and an American tourist to Bhutan trying to communicate is one of the highlights of Druk ge goem (The Guest), the latest Bhutanese movie showing in Thimphu since March 24.
And the Bhutanese audience is enjoying it.
"The misinterpretation of the language with funny expressions kept me glued to the screen from the start," said Tenzin Choden, who emerged from the hall smiling.
The two and half hour romantic comedy, which was running full house until March 31, introduces Michael (Michael Harris) as a tourist from New York who gets lost on the way from Gasa to Laya.
He meets Tshomo (Dorji Wangmo) and the romance picks up in the midst of yaks and the isolated hills. The movie also shows glimpses of the activities carried out by the local tourism companies.
Many people who watched the movie said that they were drawn to the idea of having a foreigner in a Bhutanese movie.
The typical Bhutanese attitude towards foreigners, age-old cultures and practices, kindness and ignorance of remote people are brought out distinctly through Micheal's role.
According to the lead actress, Dorji Wangmo, who is also the producer and the script writer, the romantic theme was made possible only with the introduction of a foreigner as the lead actor.
Depicting the unique life style of yak herders of Laya and the breathtaking landscape and greenery of Soe-phu adds colour to the movie.
The movie was shot in Gasa, Laya, Paro and Soe-phu over the period of five months.
The five songs in the movie, including a Layap song and a song in English, has appealed to people of various age groups.
The director and the cameraman, Kinley Dorji, said the movie was an effort to present something new to Bhutanese moviegoers.
"Besides entertaining, the movie is about responsibility and respect and to treat the guests with perfect hospitality," he said.
Besides using crane shots and sound effects, a professional cameraman from South India was also hired, according to the director. "The cooperation of the Layaps made the movie making very easy," said Kinley Dorji.
By Kesang Dema

Macho Meets the Mystical in a Himalayan River Trek

From: New York Times

Television Review 'Adventure: Bhutan'

ADVENTURE BHUTAN
Documentary
Directed by Scott Welsh; written and produced by Alex Williamson. Produced for Discovery Channel by Atlantic Productions. For Discovery Channel, Peter Lovering, executive producer. For Atlantic Productions, Anthony Geffen, executive producer.

The tiny kingdom of Bhutan was ranked the eighth-happiest country on earth in a study last year by a British scientist at the University of Leicester in England. It is probably no coincidence that the Bhutanese do not go in for white-water kayaking. Leave it to the West to import this perilous activity and make a documentary about it.

“Adventure: Bhutan,” which will be shown on the Discovery Channel tomorrow night, follows 24 intrepid types on a 10-day river trek from the Himalayas, south to the Indian border. Nobody has done this before, and there seems no reason to do it now, other than to make this documentary; the network assembled the team for that purpose.

The leader is Gerry Moffatt, a Scot who can say things like, “We’re all in the same boat together” and not sound corny — that’s how handsome he is. His impressive crew includes Greg Mallory, who is paralyzed from the waist down but paddles a mean kayak all the same, and Land Heflin, whose name alone destines him for macho adventure.

The members of the team start out among the gorgeous hillside temples of northern Bhutan, where they meet the locals and get a blessing that requires drinking alcohol from a human skull. They do more sightseeing than Matt Lauer, the globe-trotting “Today” show co-host, did on his recent Bhutan stop, but we learn less from them. These buff adventurers are here for one reason: the river.

Much of the scenery they lurch through, the narrator tells us, “has never before been seen by Western eyes.” Still, once those rapids start rolling, we could be in Colorado.

The usual trials follow. Will they make it to camp before dark? Will they get out of the gorge alive? Will the guy who’s having pure alcohol poured into his bone-deep leg wound stop moaning?

And will we driven Westerners ever learn the secrets of the East? Not in this documentary, that’s for sure. Everybody talks about the “mysticism” of the Buddhist culture that surrounds them, but, as Mr. Moffatt says, “I can’t quite put my finger on it.”

It’s simple. Just get out of the boat and walk away.