Tsering Rhitar Sherpa likes Iranian films. He likes their simple stories, rich detail, and lyricism, especially for the shoestring budgets and censorship constraints they emerge from. "They remind me of RK Narayan novels," says the 32-year-old maker of Mukundo.

Mukundo is Nepal's official entry to the Academy Awards in the foreign-language cagtegory, but before you get too excited, Tsering adds it has yet to get through the selection committee that determines the final five in the fray. "There are a lot of good movies being made around the world," he says modestly. Still, it's not bad going for a man who five years ago couldn't find work in Kathmandu.
Tsering first got interested in Cinema, with a capital C, as a student at Delhi University. Although it was hard to come by international cinema in Delhi, classics like Hitchcock's Psycho got his juices flowing, and in 1992, he found himself at IIMC in Delhi's Jamia Millia Islamia. There, he learnt about still photography, making videos, writing scripts and shooting on 16 mm film. And, of course, watched a lot of movies.

Returning to Nepal was unplea-sant initially. For a year, Tsering couldn't find any work or meet any-one in the film industry. Frustrated, he just went out, bought a camera and made his first independent film, The Spirit Doesn't Come Anymore in 1996-97. The award-winning documentary, about an old Tibetan shaman and his son in Tsering's own village outside Pokhara, is a wonderful exploration of the place of a spiritually charged individual in a changing world.

A stray news item about a female spirit medium killing a patient instead of healing her had caught his eye. Puzzled and inspired by the incident, he wrote a story. A casual conversation with writer Kesang Tseten resulted in the screenplay for Mukundo. Tsering had barely begun raising funds, when NHK stepped in.

And so we have "the first Nepali art film". Tsering is unfazed by suggestions that Mukundo panders to a Western audience. "Films should be honest, true to the maker's intention. Making a film that's different from the norm in Nepal doesn't automatically mean I'm targeting a Western market." As for Nepali cinema, Tsering wishes directors and producers took their work more seriously and watched more international cinema. "There's talent and potential, but the social structure doesn't really support young independent filmmakers. Unlike Iran, Nepal doesn't even have a film committee that funds cinema or nurtures new talent."

So what's Tsering's bread and butter? His firm, Mila Productions, works on other people's projects. He has a few stories in mind for his next feature, but it will take time to develop a story and then raise money. Documentaries, features, song-and-dance extravaganzas, he doesn't rule anything out. He isn't what he calls a "celluloid snob" and is eager to work in digital media if issues of distribution can be resolved. He promises, though, that whatever his next film, it will be as personal and deeply felt as Mukundo. We can't wait.