"Filmed entirely inside the narrow confines of a cable car, high above a jungle in Nepal that transports villagers to an ancient mountaintop temple, [Manakamana] is an acute ethnographic investigation into culture, religion, technology and modernity ... For centuries, devoted pilgrims hoping to reach the fabled temple needed to undertake an arduous multi-day journey. Today, because of a new cable car system, the entire trip takes just under 10 minutes ... [The film] opens a rich and vibrant window onto this world over the course of eleven such rides. Each is composed of a fixed shot, lasting between 9 and 10 minutes ... With every sequence, we are introduced to new passengers: an elderly man and his grandson, a trio of teenage rockers, a married couple, a mother and daughter, three wives. Through their shared conversations, anecdotes, observations about the surrounding landscape, and even their silence, a detailed picture of their lives emerges; a story about history, tradition, and change"--Container.