Nepal film festival to make overseas debut in Hong Kong
Bibek Bhandari
The Kathmandu International Mountain Film Festival (KIMFF) will make its over-seas debut in Hong Kong this month show-casing short films and documentaries from the Himalayas.
The festival isn't just about Nepal's mighty mountains; it also charts the adventures and aspirations of individuals and communities across the country.
At the one-day event, the audience will meet the "Nepali Messi": the protagonist of , a 45-minute documentary which sees a women's football team travel from one of Nepal's most impoverished regions to compete in a national tournament.
Another documentary, , charts one family's thrilling expedition to collect a prized fungus known as Himalayan viagra. The film reveals the risks involved in obtaining the valuable medicinal fungus, which grows on Nepal's high terrain and is sold across China.
The other three films to be shown are less than 15 minutes long: tells the story, from a 12-year-old's perspective, of cultural shift as a family migrates to Britain; ( ) deals with human aspiration; and delves into corruption.
"For the Nepalese [living in Hong Kong], these films will remind them of home," says Basanta Thapa, chairman of the KIMFF. "For an international audience, it will be a chance to learn about Nepal's culture and lifestyle through films."
The KIMFF was established in 2000, in Kathmandu, as a biennial festival which aimed to explore the diverse and complex ways in which humans relate to mountains, and has since become an annual event.
KIMFF Hong Kong will be held on Saturday at the Pakistani Club, 150 Princess Margaret Road, Jordan. Tickets, which cost HK$100 each, can be booked by calling 9420 7156 or 5626 0206.
