Living on the clouds

Living on the clouds from Luis ML Soriano on Vimeo.

Documentary about the life of a family of shepherds who work every day with his flock in the mountains of northern Pakistan, near the border with Afghanistan, at the foot of the roof of the world.

Stretching northwest of Afiyatabad for approximately 80km towards the Wakhan Corridor of Afghanistan, the remote Chapursan Valley sees very few visitors though it offers splendid trekking opportunities and the chance to experience the renowned Wakhi hospitality and culture.

Just beyond the northern limit of Afiyatabad the winding link road to Chapursan intersects with the KKH. After travelling through crumbling mountains and sliding scree slopes that make the trip adventurous at any time but exceedingly dangerous during rain, the simple but colourful Panja Shah Ziarat, a shrine to a Sufi saint, is reached after about 40 minutes. Soon after, the first village of the valley, Yazrich is signalled by a rare splash of green vegetation and low stone-and-mud dwellings typical of the valley. Fifteen minutes further is the large village of Raminj, mostly hidden above the road. The next three villages – Aminabad, Rahimabad and Nurabad – are clustered where the valley broadens into a bowl and are collectively known as Kirmin. Ten minutes on, massive slopes of grey scree are separated from the green wheat terraces and irrigation canals of Kil, a village that spans the river and is linked by a tenuous suspension bridge. The next villages along the valley road are Reshit and nearby Sher-e-Sabz, each with a guesthouse, then Ispanj and Shuthmarg, before the final village of Zood Khun, at about 3500m.

At Zood Khun, accommodation, trekking information, yak and jeep transport and more can be found at the Pamir Serai guesthouse run by the redoubtable Alam Jan Dario, horseman, musician and ambassador of Wakhi Tajik culture. As the operator of Pamir Trails (www.pamirtrails.com), Alam Jan Dario runs cultural and adventurous treks on foot or horseback into the valleys and over the passes of his spectacular homeland.

Beyond Zood Khun is the mystical and holy Baba Ghundi Ziarat, a shrine to a Sufi saint said to have miraculous powers, and a popular pilgrimage site. The shrine is surrounded by meadows that host herds of sheep in summer and, sporadically from June to September, Kyrgyz traders from Afghanistan who traditionally cross the Irshad Pass with horses, yaks and sheep to trade with the Chapursan villagers.

Living on the clouds

DOCUMENTARY SERIE. INTRODUCTION

Some of the remotest corners of the planet are located in the heart of its highest mountain ranges. Life is extremely harsh in the foothills of the Himalayas, the Karakoram, the Hindu Kush or the Pamir Mountains, yet some peoples, shepherd and nomad tribes continue to inhabit these places. They are used to travelling across those vertiginous hills and ravines in search of the pasture necessary to guarantee the survival of their herds, at the speed the seasons would allow them to and in perfect harmony with nature. Their life is an endless adventure they set off for every day, as their ancestors have done for centuries.

The series entitled “Living on the Clouds” focuses on the close relationship built between human beings and their environment; that is, on those lives which are closely linked to the Earth.

All the documentaries take place in Central Asia, where the highest mountain ranges in the planet can be found: from the frontiers of ancient Persia to the perennial snows of the Karakorum, including the Pamir and Hindu Kush mountains. These ranges provide shelter to several groups of men and women who have turned ‘The World’s Ceiling’ into their home.

The original proposal consists of four 25-minute-long programmes but could be extended in the future.

GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS

A different aspect of these peoples’ everyday life is described in each chapter: their work, social relationships, journeys, caravans, rituals… The story is entirely told by its protagonists, together with an initial off-screen voice supporting the storyteller by adding objective information. Every programme boasts its own identity, but it is by means of the combination of all of them that a global knowledge about these peoples’ situation throughout a whole year can be acquired, for each documentary is set in a certain season. We will get to know each group’s special characteristics and the general bonds existing between the different communities. As if they were part of a puzzle, all the programmes complement each other so as to offer a much more complex final work. Although this series has originally been projected to comprise four documentaries, being therefore structured in four seasons, it should be possible to subsequently extend it so that it would include more chapters.

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