The Tibetan cultural area stretches from Ladakh in the west to Sichuan in the east. The idea of bringing a piano to one of the most elevated and remotest villages in this area is indeed both ridiculous and beautiful at the same time. As the initiator of this project, Desmond O'Keeffe is consumed by doubt wether he should have done this, we see the people who carry the heavy metal frame across the mountain passes stay invariably enthousiastic. It was heartwarming to see their unconditional joy.
I loved the endearing Anna Ray and her tender friendship with Desmond O'Keeffe.
Like every sensible person, you can ask why this was done and the answer will be: because it adds sheer beauty to this world.
Piano to Zanskar
2018
Action / Documentary
Piano to Zanskar
2018
Action / Documentary
Plot summary
When his 65th birthday approaches, Desmond Gentle, an eccentric piano tuner from London, decides to undertake the most difficult and perilous piano delivery of his career. The challenge entails traveling to the heart of the Indian Himalayas with a 100-year old upright piano, carried across high mountain passes using only yaks and ponies. Destination: a primary school in Lingshed, one of the most isolated settlements in the world, situated 14,000 feet above sea. If Desmond is successful, this will be the highest piano delivery in history, and the crowning achievement of his 40-year long career.
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Sincerely moved by imaginative willpower
Meditative documentary about an eccentric journey
This documentary follows an English veteran piano tuner called Desmond Gentle, who embarks on a mission to deliver a 100-year old piano to a small village high up in the Himalayas, transported using only people and yaks. In doing so, this will make this piano the highest in the world.
This is the kind of story that celebrated German film-maker Werner Herzog could easily have documented, after all, he pulled a steamboat over a hill in the middle of the Amazon rainforest. The only difference is that Piano to Zanskar doesn't have a demented maniac like Klaus Kinski raving about like a madman on the periphery making a difficult objective borderline impossible. The people in this wilderness trek are all low-key, humble individuals so there are no heavy melodramas to be found here. The journey is not without drama, however, as the footage of the somewhat quite obviously dangerous descent down a mountainside with large piano makes abundantly clear. But, ultimately, this documentary becomes less about the trek itself than the overall objective. The people of Lingshed are fascinating in themselves. They are mostly cut-off from the rest of the world, so their way of life is much more different to our own. They value, far more, the simple pleasures in life in which we sometimes forget. So, when this 100-year old piano is reconstructed and played for the first time in this place in the middle of the mountains, its has a beautiful impact. There are other unusual moments to savour too, such as when Gentle's young female assistant leads a bunch of children through a dance routine where they all singalong to 'Movin' on Up' by Primal Scream. It is a beautiful, strange moment and, needless to say, I don't think it is one Bobby Gillespie and the boys could have envisioned their ecstasy-fuelled anthem ever being used for.
This is a highly meditative documentary, which also boasts some beautiful photography of a dramatic natural environment. It is low-key and somewhat spiritual in effect and is well worth checking out.
Rich white people move a piano
This is a movie is clearly designed as rich white people catnip and boy does it deliver. Buckle you're seatbelts in to see three ridiculously privileged British folks let a bunch of Indians do literally all the work for them as they whine about their infantile problems.
"I'm going through a rough patch recently since my girlfriend left me" says an oversized sheet of lasagne while some guys behind him carry a piano up a flight of stairs. Another lady with a degree in environmental studies shakes her head while some Sherpas slide down a hill under the weight of her unnecessary piano cargo.
Normally I can't stand the incessant yapping about identity politics but watching some white British dude complain that some Indians had to carry his piano instead of yaks, and this was causing mortal peril to his piano really got me.
Peace, but mainly a huge f you to whoever thought this was a sensible idea. Like seriously, wtf?! A British white dude