AllMovie

Filmmaker Toni Hagen shot much of his sociological documentary Uhile ko Nepal between 1950 and 1960 - a decade when the gates of Nepal had only recently been opened to the outside world. Hagen initially visited the country on a mission of Swiss development assistance, with a stated goal of diamond hunting, but in the process, he stumbled onto a pre-technological civilization, free from such modern accoutrements as paved roads, automobiles and airplanes - and undertook a 14,000 km journey from one end of the country to another. The result is a time capsule of a vanished civilization - captured in footage that forms a striking contrast with modern-day Nepal.