In Search of the Riyal

Nepal / 2009 / 86 min / Documentary / Nepali with English subtitles
Director: Kesang Tseten
Producer: Kesang Tseten
www.shunyatafilms.com
Email: kesang@homebase.wlink.com.np
Tel: 977 980 344 2560

Synopsis

In Search of Riyal is the first documentary of Kesang Tseten’s trilogy on Nepali migrant workers in the Arabian Gulf. Nepal has become a pipeline of cheap labour for the Gulf, emptying villages of its young men, who set out to escape their family woes and poverty for wages of US $5 to 7 a day in the alien and stultifying conditions of the Qatari desert. Disillusionment and occasional transformation convey the enormity of their journey.

Previous Screenings/Awards

• Film South Asia, Kathmandu: Selected for FSA travelling showcase.
• Kathmandu International Mountain Film, 2009.
• Pusan International Film festival
• Leipzig International Documentary and Animation Festival

About Director

Kesang Tseten is a Nepali filmmaker of Tibetan origin, the director of In Search of Riyal; Saving Dolma; The Desert Eats Us; Yuddha Chitra (Frames of War); Hami Kunako Manche (We Corner People); Machhendranath: On the Road with the Red God; Listen to the Wind and We Homes Chaps. He has won many awards including the Best Nepali Documentary at Kathmandu International Mountain Film Festival, 2006 for We Corner People and Grand Prize at the Kendal Mountain Film Festival, UK, 2006 for Macchendranath. He has also written the script for Nepali features Mukondo and Karma.

His film "We Corner People" was screened on TNFF 2010.