Showing @ Filmhouse, Edinburgh, Thu 19 Jun & Cineworld, Edinburgh, Fri 20 Jun
Stephanie Spray, Pacho Velez / USA/Nepal / 2013 / 118 mins
“It’s hard going up, but fast coming down,” observes one elderly pilgrim in Manakamana. Like so much in Stephanie Spray and Pacho Velez’s meditative documentary, the statement hints at a deeper, more universal meaning.
The Manakamana Temple lies at the top of a vertiginous Nepalese mountain, accessible via a three day climb or a ten-minute cable car ride. Viewers follow disparate travellers on eleven of these short journeys, and it is their spectrum of reactions and interactions which form the core of the film. Manakamana blends technology and spirituality, silence and expression, in a balance as delicate as the cars on their wires.
One sombre man and his equally – though incongruously – earnest young son, are totally silent throughout. A mixture of wonder and trepidation play across one woman’s face. She seems eager to talk, but struggles to voice her emotions. Two older women laugh like children as they race the heat to finish their first ice creams, whilst a trio of long-haired young musicians cradle a mewling kitten and snap endless photos. The whirring of the camera, the spectacular scenery, and the obtrusive clank of pylons are the only constants.
The cable car stations are dark and mysterious, the travellers’ point of origin and ultimate destination equally shrouded in mystery. It seems in Manakamana, as in life, the journey is all.