It isn't too surprising, actually, that Mukundo or Caravan didn't win the popular vote. Certainly, both played to packed houses and were very well received just on the level of being films set in Nepal and in the case of Mukundo, made by Nepalis. But most viewers seemed ambivalent about what they really expected from the films.

One of the first questions tossed out to Jean de Tregomain, executive producer of Caravan, was the usual "what did you do for them after making so much money" rant. In reply, he suggested that perhaps we ought to ask what the Nepali government did with the large fees they demanded before allowing Caravan to be shot here. It's more than just an amusing answer. Does using non-actors in films mean you have to take care of them for the rest of time?

The trouble with Mukundo was not just that some people thought the actors didn't do justice to a strong story and an otherwise really well-made film, but the more nebulous charge of making a movie for a "Western audience". Director Tsering Rhitar Sherpa and scriptwriter Kesang Tseten emphasised, rightly I think, that everything in the movie-shamanism, sexuality, individual angst-was inherent in the real incident that inspired the film. What Mukundo did was try to understand why events unfolded as they did.

Genghis Blues was another world, with no troublesome questions like these.