Travellers and Magicians 2003

Bhutanese filmmaker Khyentse Norbu is a unique figure in world cinema: director of The Cup, he is known throughout Tibetan Buddhism as one of its most important living lamas. Travellers and Magicians applied Norbu’s filmmaking talents to a warm-hearted tale of journeys and dreamlands. Whiling away his time in an isolated village, bored young government official Dondup listens to rock music and dreams of escaping to America. When his chance arrives, Dondup – with white sneakers and tape deck – hitchhikes to town along with an elderly apple seller, a sage young monk, and an old man with his beautiful daughter. Along the road, the monk tells Dondup the story of another young man who sought a land far away…

“The first feature film from the remote kingdom of Bhutan, Travellers and Magicians captures the country’s landscape with breathtaking effect, whether in the crisp, clear hues of Dondup’s modern-day journey or through the monk’s fable and its painterly array of shadows, lightplay and richly saturated colors.” — Jason Sanders, San Francisco Asian Film Festival