Horrible, fascist and poorly acted

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

Having taught ss who share w/these Himalayan children troubled lives, backgrounds, disadvantages I was in total agreement that foremost in teaching is sharing, caring, loving & understanding and then comes education. Filmed at a community school/home in the poorest most isolated of regions, but with unsurpassed beauty.

"Tashi and the Monk" is a 40-minute live action short film from 2014, so this one is already over 3 years old. It focuses on the life and work of Lobsang Phuntsok, a Tibetian monk, who decided to take another life path than usual. He dedicates his life to children now and helps them with their every day problems and struggles, especially if these do not have a parent / parents anymore to do the job. So you could see this as a mix of Tibetian orphanage/children's home and the problems are basically the same as in every other part of the world. I think this was a good watch, but I am also glad this stayed down at short film length as it may have dragged a bit as a full feature and the material may not have been enough. Even the way it actually turned out, there is a bit of too many melodramatic scenes at times for my taste and a bit of it was probably staged as well. Still, despite all this I believe the good outweighs the bad easily and the characters, especially Lobsang, are interesting enough to watch for 40 minutes. I am also not surprised about the decent awards attention this one received as the subject is really one that awards bodies would like or even love. I recommend checking it out. Thumbs-up.