Spanish Film Shot in Himalayas

The Himalayas with all its grandeur is very enchanting to all. But at times it can be very depressing, remote and lonely.

This is the basic theme of the Spanish film director Salvador Calvo who is in the Himalayan mountains of India to shoot “Valle de Sombras” (which translates  as  “Valley of Shadows”). The film starring Miguel Herran of Money Heist fame  narrates a tale of adventure reflecting on guilt in a remote area abound with dangers.

The story takes place in Kullu Valley, in Himachal Pradesh, for which Calvo felt the need to shoot a part of the film in that part of the country. The idea of telling a story about this  remote and unknown area of the Himalayas came when the Spanish director, who was planning a trip to India in the late 1990s, heard news of backpackers who had been attacked by  local  thugs.  The area, sacred to many cultures and religions, attracted young tourists who came “to have fun, smoke marijuana and dance in ‘raves’,” and some disappeared along the way, victims of possible assault.

The Lonely Planet in 1999 had an advisory warning that this area was conflictive and to be careful about accepting drinks from unknown people or even from the “sadhus” or the holy men, because not all are saints. The story is about Quique (Miguel Herran), Clara (Susana  Abaitua) and the little Lucas (Ivan Renedo), a family that decides to travel to India for healing when a decision completely changes the course of their lives. “Initially things go very well, … (everything is) very beautiful, (but) something terrible ends up happening that makes Quique remain isolated in a lost town and have a duel with himself,” Miguel Herran said.

“In India it is very difficult to recreate. We have tried to recreate some things, part of the filming has been done in Spain, in Gran Canaria, but India has some landscapes and some people that I think is very difficult to reproduce,” Calvo said in an interview. Bringing ‘Valle de Sombras’ to the big screen was a complex process that began in 2020, in the midst of a pandemic, when Calvo travelled to Northern India with a small production group to assess the possible scenarios for the shoot.

The Spanish film director is shooting his third feature film, a project that took three years to materialize and which he hopes to complete by the end of next winter. Best part is that the story is set in 1999, when there were still no mobile phones or Wi-Fi, and reflects on the personal grief that Quique is going through to face a dilemma that will help him “learn to forgive himself and continue with life”.