Children of the Snow Land (2018) User Reviews

"I must be cruel only to be kind."

[rtatsiana · 9/10 · 30 November 2019]

'Children of the Snow Land' is a very moving feature documentary about three teenagers Nima, Tsering Deki and Jeewan who, aged 4-6 years old, were brought from practically inaccessible, very poor, villages in the Himalayas in Nepal to a boarding school 'Snow Land' in Kathmandu (run by a Buddhist monk and funded by charity) by their relatives and were left there alone without anybody from their families ever visiting them. All just for the sake of education and a better, than their own, future for these children.

Now that they are about to graduate they have a lucky chance to go back to their villages and visit their families for three months. They feel very excited but also a little insecure about their journeys back home. It takes them a 14-hour bus ride, a flight and a half a week to two weeks (the children live in different parts of the Himalayan region) of a dangerous climb, for some of them in freezing temperatures with the risk of avalanches, and of course, reconnecting with their families and communities, and a lot of reflection on the reasons of their abandonment to understand why their parents had to be cruel. Only to be kind.

The film crew provided these three students with video gear and training - they turned out to be great at filming and video storytelling, and, as a result, we are awarded with some stunning landscape views from some of the remotest and hardest-to-reach places in the Himalayan mountains that we will never be able to visit ourselves. I loved all the story lines in the film, but my favorite one is probably that of lovely Tsering. It seems for her mother it was a very hard decision to send her away when she was still a toddler, but looking at the hard life of a woman in such places where men (judging from Tsering's father's film appearance) drink tea and talk with their buddies all day, and watch TV in the evenings, I can totally understand the sacrifice her mother chose to make.

I loved this doc. I watched it with my children, and they were equally moved by these children's life stories.

The film won Best Documentary awards at film festivals in LA (2018) and Canada (2019).

Bringing my point of view way much wider than ever

[ronaldosilitonga · 10/10 · 24 February 2020]

Starts pretty well as a documentary movie, and it became more personal while the story splitting to each of those 3 snowland kid point of view.

I feel so blessed on what i have right now. I was wondering on how could i help them on Snowland School. Or even help any other kids around me.

Very touchy.

Is the film willfully misleading or just woefully badly researched?

[gavin-73225 · 2/10 · 24 September 2020]

If you don't know anything about the subject matter or the area where the film is based (Dolpo and Humla) then the film will come across very well - poignant, with a strong story line and a strong message. such a strong message that I understand many dipped in their pockets to fund the Kathmandu based Snowlands School which during the filming was damaged by the Nepal earthquake of 2015.

The problem is that the film is based on a false premise - a falsehood that is explicitly expressed in the film - that there are NO schools in the Dolpo and Humla areas. This is the reason that families gave up their children - many of who were as young as 4 - to be sent far away to Kathmandu. these children were to never see their families again until funding was provided from them to return. It is this return journey after around 10 years of not seeing their families that is the basis of the film. The film is very effective at highlighting the emotional anguish this inevitably caused among the children and their complete dislocation from their culture and families. The children return, urbanised and westernised - they admit openly their shock and even disgust at the rural areas and show the difficulty of even communicating with their families (they appeared more fluent in English than they are in the Tibetan dialect spoken by 2 of the 3 children's families). It was clear none of them will ever return to live with their families - one child even says that the rural areas were 'hell' while Kathmandu feels like 'heaven' - the words of someone suffering culture shock. The film only marginally touches on the incredible and rich culture and heritage of this area - focusing more on mud and squalor (mud which is not that usual apart from during the monsoon and after snow melt)

The reality is that there ARE schools in Humla and Dolpo. Some are state run and pretty poor - but there are also a number that are supported/supplemented by funding such as the Tapriza Schools of Dolpo (Swiss supported) which are very well set up and run their terms to coincide with the lives of the seasonally nomadic familes of the area. There are similar schools in Upper Dolpo, and the Tarap Valley. These schools teach children not only Nepali and English but also the local Tibetan dialect and they help children recognize their culture and maintain links with their families and communities. These are the schools that need further support NOT the Kathmandu mountain schools which cause unnecessary trauma and dislocation to children. In later years, teenagers can get scholarships from the Dolpo schools to study in Kathmandu - but after they have properly connected with their families and culture.

I would like to give the film crew some benefit of the doubt that they were just woefully bad at researching the theme (mountain education) and failed to pick up on this lively debate about taking children out of communities for education versus investing in education in their locations. Nevertheless, I think there is unfortunately evidence that the film is actually willfully misleading. It is clear that at least one cameraperson followed the children on part of their journey - and for Nima from Upper Dolpo this cameraman definitely traveled as far as Lake Phoksundo. On the path they travelled - Nima, his companions and the film-maker would have effectively passed through Tapriza school at Sanduwa - they could not miss it. This school is well set up and run (I spent time there 6 months after this film was shot so can assert this with 100% confidence). adnmitedly they needed to expand because demand outstripped supply but this was something they were working on (and has now happened to some extent).

Mountain schools in a distant city that pluck very young children from their homes, families, communities and culture and set up a situation where children will not see their familes for a decade or more might arguably have a place when there is absolutely no option (although I even question that). They certainly do not have a place when there are other better options - funding should go to the true mountain schools of Dolpo and Humla not the Kathmandu Schols that this film so effectively promotes. Please don't be hoodwinked by the misinformation and false message of this film.