It takes a lot for Tshiring Lhamu Lama to set up in “Snow Leopard Sisters,” clinging to the side of a snow-covered mountain in the Nepalese region of Dolpo where she dusts off the side of a cliff with the hope of spotting a snow leopard and capturing it on camera to prove they still exist. The species has been under attack by local goat herders when they’re liable to kill off entire flocks at a time in an area that’s too poor to afford stronger protective measures, but Tshiring was raised to believe it’s “a guardian of the mountains,” perhaps held sacred by her ancestors for one reason, but could be considered now as only the start of an erosion of various indigenous wildlife where she grew up when there’s less than 100 left in existence.
However, what Tshring is really saving becomes the most fascinating part of Sonam Choekyi Lama, Ben Ayers and Andrew Lynch’s documentary where she fruitlessly spends her days hoping to find a snow leopard in her midst, but comes to see an opportunity to contribute to their survival by finding a local apprentice who could convince others that killing them off won’t make them any safer. That last point is debatable, particularly upon learning of what happened to Tenzin, the 17-year-old set to take up Tshring on her offer when it means some extra income for her mother and herself to survive on. Yet the two make for a compelling pair when Tshring has both convince her new protege they have a cause worth fighting for and be disabused of some of her own tunnel vision when it comes to the culture she was raised in. The film itself can come across oversimplified at times when it’s a bit too determined in its own focus to deliver a satisfying female empowerment and conservation tale for all ages, but Lama, Ayers and Lynch are indeed around to capture something special as they track Tshring and Tenzin over two weeks as they try to lay eyes on a snow leopard in the Himalayas.
For instance, Tenzin’s decision to become Tshiring’s apprentice probably wasn’t an easy one when the snow leopard hasn’t threatened the young woman with its claws, but the creature has nonetheless cut deep when one came and picked off her family’s entire flock of 45 sheep. Coupled with the untimely and seemingly unrelated death of her sister, Tenzin’s father is said to have experienced a form of madness, ending up in prison where he continues to dictate his family’s fate since women aren’t respected as authorities in the area and with no other man around the house, Tenzin is expected to marry well before she wants to. Although the opportunity to become Tshiring’s apprentice is a fortuitous one not only in a financial sense, it also proves to be a formative one when Tshiring is an independent woman herself, unintimidated by men and free to make her own decisions as she carries around a small son of her own in the mountains.
“Snow Leopard Sisters” covers quite a bit of ground both geographically and otherwise when Tshiring and Tenzin follow a trail along Tsakang, visiting shepherds and monasteries where people hold conflicting views of the animal – a monk goes so far as to say the snow leopard “only has bad in its heart” and makes a reasonable point that Tshiring’s concerns may be misplaced when fixating on the creature’s scarcity rather than the threat it poses. The film invites a broader consideration of the evolving values of Nepalese society when Tshiring herself has relocated to the urban Kathmandu to work for the National Park Service, with her study of snow leopards conducted on the side when such a rural issue doesn’t appear to register much as a pressing issue, and when villages remain self-governed and largely unchanged from generations past, Tenzin contends with actively working against her self-interest at times for reasons she can’t understand except that it’s the way it’s been done for centuries.
The panoramic scenes of Tshiring and Tenzin stomping around the Himalayas are naturally beautiful, but the effect that the two have on one another becomes equally so when they may share the same culture yet show each other a side that they don’t have easy access to. They may be frustrated in their efforts to catch a glimpse of something rare for all the time they spend, but “Snow Leopard Sisters” is far more generous on that front.
“Snow Leopard Sisters” does not yet have U.S. distribution.