THE SALTMEN OF TIBET

Hollywood has recently rediscovered Nepal and Mount Everest, with features like “Seven Years in Tibet” and “Kundun.” But nothing short of a plane ticket and a team of Sherpas can bring you closer to the roof of the world than this feature documentary. Without narration it immerses the viewer in an age-old, nearly unknown culture subsisting on the Tibetan plateau. Every spring, for as long as anyone can remember, hardy tribal nomads and their yaks trek to isolated pools left over from a primordial sea. There they attempt to scrape enough precipitated salt to barter and sell year-round, a harvest that is part religious ritual, part economic expedition, part initiation to manhood – and wholly in danger of extinction, as more modern hunter/gatherers, with trucks and business contacts, tap the same natural bounty. Ulrike Koch was granted extraordinary access to four native “Saltmen” during the annual journey that shapes their entire worldview (they even revert to an untranslatable “salt language” amongst themselves). Astounding vistas of the Himalayas testify to the quality and versatility of the high-tech miniature digital camera used to record this most ancient of peoples. (In Tibetan with English subtitles)