Kasia Smutniak did not walk the red carpet alone at this year’s Rome Film Fest. Beside the 47-year-old actor and director on 19 October were her husband, the producer Domenico Procacci, her 22-year-old daughter Sophie Taricone, and Kunzom Thakuri, the Nepali woman with whom she built a school in one of the most remote corners of the Himalaya. Together they were there for the world premiere of Mustang, a documentary that has been 23 years in the making.
A trip, a promise and a school
The story begins in 2003, when Kasia Smutniak and her then partner Pietro Taricone set off for Mustang, a high, road-less region of Nepal on the border with Tibet, carrying backpacks and a small MiniDV camera. The trip was his idea. There they met a community they promised to come back and help. Pietro Taricone died in June 2010, aged 35, after a parachuting accident, and in the years that followed Kasia Smutniak chose to keep that promise. Working with Kunzom Thakuri and local families, she helped create the Ghami Solar School, which opened in 2016 so that children could carry on studying without leaving home.
The film took shape when Sophie, at 19, travelled to Mustang on her own with her father’s old camera. Her mother saw it as a passing of the baton, and Sophie became the documentary’s narrator. Kasia Smutniak told Vanity Fair Italia that the film tells a story in emotional layers, a road trip that is also the journey of a life.
Happiness in the here and now
The school is now facing a difficult moment. Climate change and depopulation are reshaping the region, and pupil numbers are falling, which is partly why Kasia Smutniak felt the urge to tell the story now. Yet she insists Mustang is above all a film about happiness and hope: a real community where joy is lived day to day, and where the children’s simple routines read almost like a manual for being happy. Kunzom Thakuri describes the two women as feeling like mothers to the school’s 80 or so pupils.
Produced by Fandango with Luce Cinecittà, the 105-minute documentary is part of the festival’s Best Documentary selection and reaches Italian cinemas on 23 November, distributed by Fandango.
The bright prayer flags of the Himalaya make a lovely colour story of their own: deep blue sapphire pendants, red ruby earrings, green emerald rings and sunny citrine earrings. And for travels of your own, a hands-free crossbody bag keeps the essentials close.
Sources: Vanity Fair Italia (13 and 19 October 2026); Rome Film Fest official film guide and 2026 programme (romacinemafest.org); Associazione Pietro Taricone, Solar School Project Ghami. Featured photo: prayer flags in Nepal by Volker Meyer via Pexels (illustrative).
