Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom achieved an overall appreciation score of 94.7%. Most members found this beautiful, enjoyable and heart warming; while a minority found it too quaint and sentimental. Some of the comments submitted:
- A simple and beautifully crafted film, what a treat.
- Gentle. Wonderful filming of scenery. Humorous and acting very good- especially the children. A lovely end to the season.
- À Lovely film from all aspects. Beautiful scenery, lots of funny moments and a simple, heart warming plot.
- Ticked all the boxes for me. Stunning cinematography, good story, and informative about a very different culture and way of life.
- “Zen and the art of Yak maintenance”. Beautifully made and an great insight into another culture and different values.
- One of the best films I have seen at film club. Beautiful acting and scenery.
A deeply moving film I really enjoyed with a profound message about the simple life and materialism doesn’t always bring happiness. - What a fabulous film – one you could see time and time again for photography, actors, jokes, children. The spontaneous clapping at the end showed how popular it was.
- That was the second time I had seen it and, despite its sentimentality, reliance upon scenery and rather obvious narrative arc it was even more moving second time round. The extraordinary vividness of the children’s performances, the understated wit and the simple human decency was exceptional.
- A bit slow and predictable, but good to know more about Bhutan and its traditions and prejudices.
- Brilliant entry from Bhutan and their take on Gross National Happiness. The film is profoundly moving and raw. That said the film follows a fairly well trodden plot and can at times seem bias – there is a tendency to idealise Bhutan’s rural communities against the crass materialistic world (usually of the West). The film is heavily inspired by Bhutan’s acclaimed documentary ‘School in the Glacier’ and from this, we get a sense that the children and their parents are not as wide eyed enthusiastic about the value of education. The film does gloss over the harsh reality of this community and that the saviour teacher/s cannot and do not overcome the education attainment gap in these communities.
- A little bit too naive and charming for me – not really 2 hours well spent. Fascinating on Bhutan and yaks, though. But the notion of ‘city boy fails to understand that there is no place like home’ does seem to have been covered before. Still, there wasn’t any CGI or shoot ’em ups, so all was not lost.
- A simple but hugely enjoyable film, with a refreshing lack of sentimentality or overblown romanticism.
- I didn’t think they made films like this anymore. A gentle, charming, amusing and poignant story. Fascinating glimpse into another world.
- A slow start but very good once it got going, better second half vs. first half for this film. A poignant film but maybe could’ve made more with humour of the ‘fish out of water’ scenario. Ending was okay but no real surprise, could also have done more with the Yak in the classrom, especially given it was the film’s title! More of a novelty than any real plot device. A number of plot strands that weren’t fully developed. Overall a good film but could’ve been great, excellent performances and interesting premise.
- The title says it all. A quaint, good-hearted, child like tale. I would have preferred something more adult.
- Sometimes the films are too grim, this was too saccharine!