Delamu (Tibetan for “Peace Angel”) is a heartbreakingly beautiful record of the ancient Tea-Horse Road. Connecting southwestern China (Yunnan Province, known in the past mythologically as Shangri-La) to the outside world through Tibet, Bhutan, India, Western Asia, and through to Europe, the remote route has been traversable only by pack animal caravans. That is, until recently. New roads are being built, bringing automobiles and tourists into extremely remote provinces. Breathtakingly gorgeous portraits of landscapes and the indigenous people of the upper reaches of the route are accompanied by an exquisite music score and sound design, creating a sumptuous journey for the viewer. A heartbroken young Tibetan lama, a 104-year-old woman with generations of stories within her, two brothers who contentedly share one wife, a once-persecuted priest, a mule driver distraught over the loss of a beloved companion, and others whose lives have been shaped by their remote habitat emerge out of the mountain crags and river valleys. Directed by the highly revered Tian Zhuangzhuang (Horse Thief, SFIFF 1988; Li Lianying, the Imperial Eunuch, SFIFF 1991), this is a time capsule of a place and time soon to be altered by encroaching technology.