COURTESY OF HIFF Tshewang Dendup, left, and Sonam Kinga play road-travelling companions in "Travellers and Magicians."

Director works magic
with novice actors

In his second feature, director Khyentse Norbu once again shows an affinity for expressing his deeply held Buddhist beliefs in a specific story with a universal appeal.

"Travellers & Magicians" Bhutan, part of the Louis Viutton Hawaii International Film Festival's Eastern Showcase, playing at 8:15 p.m. tomorrow at Doris Duke Theatre, Honolulu Academy of Arts, and 1:45 p.m. Saturday at Dole Cannery multiplex 4 stars

Not surprising, since Norbu is described in his online bio as "one of the most important incarnate lamas in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition," holding the lofty-sounding title of His Eminence Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche.

He's also a member of one of the most noble families in the kingdom of Bhutan, a country nestled in the eastern Himalayas, where the sacred and the secular are part and parcel of everyday life in this predominantly Buddhist land.

The awe-inspiring landscape of the country is the backdrop for "Travellers & Magicians," an excellent entry in this year's Louis Vuitton Hawaii International Film Festival and the follow-up to his previous fest fave, "The Cup," a semi-autobiographical tale about a group of Tibetan monks obsessed with the World Cup soccer final.

Norbu takes an equally droll approach with his latest film, his main character being a chain-smoking, long-haired village official enamored enough with the promise of America that he's willing to leave Bhutan for good -- pop-song-playing boombox in tow and dressed in traditional black robe and white basketball sneaks.

As in "The Cup," Norbu gets great, naturalistic work from a cast of native people who, while they photograph well, have never acted.

To secure a visa to enter the country of movies, restaurants "and mostly cool girls," Dondap (Tshewang Dendup) journeys to the American Embassy with a growing collection of compatriots: a drunk, a wizened apple seller and a rice-paper seller and his 19-year-old daughter (Sonam Lhamo). The daughter could give Dondap pause from furthering his "trip to dreamland."

Also accompanying Dondap is an itinerant Buddhist monk (Sonam Kinga), who seems to represent the director's playful conscience as he tries to dissuade Dondap from leaving.

The monk tells the tale of an equally restless young man who helps his lover, the young wife of a weaver, poison her husband. This magical tale -- beautifully produced with the help of digitally processed coloring -- is interwoven throughout the journey.

Once again, Norbu brings out wonderfully nuanced performances from his amateur actors in this story within a story, in particular Lhakpa Dorji as the young man, Deki Yangzom as the wife and Gomchen Penjore as her aged and suspicious husband.

This abiding sense of magic realism is felt throughout Dondap's trip: The young wife briefly appears as a car driver who doesn't pick up the travelers, and the haunted eyes of the poisoned husband are reflected in a painting of Buddha seen at a rest stop.

"Travellers & Magicians" is a quiet and charming film that makes no pretentious claims to blissful enlightenment, but instead offers up a unique vision of life through the sensitivities of a believer in Buddhism.