Run time: 109 mins

This exquisite debut feature from Bhutanese director Pawo Choyning Dorji, opens with Ugyen,its lead character, pondering what it really means to be happy.

When we first meet Ugyen, he is an unsatisfied teacher with dreams of escaping to Australia and becoming a singer, despite his grandmother’s insistence that being a teacher and a civil servant is a better job than anything he will find abroad. Before he can do that, his government employers send him to the remote village of Lunana, accessible only by horse and foot, to finish out his contract.

If Ugyen finds the city unsatisfying, imagine his displeasure at giving up material comforts, such as listening to music and using his phone, to live in a region without regular electricity or even indoor plumbing. Ugyen’s charming, yak-herding hosts are an internet-free picture of serenity against the Himalayan backdrop of verdant, misty slopes. Parables about teachers sent to the provinces are usually a two-way street: education and advancement for the students, life lessons for their instructor. Gentle and lilting, Lunana moves at a hiker’s pace, so sit back and soak up the scenery.