Himalaya

Eric Valli filmed Himalaya, a box-office hit in his native France, for nine months in ""one of the most isolated and highest areas in the world."" Though fictional, the film is closely based on experiences of several of Valli's Tibetan intimates and acquaintances, and performed mostly by nonactors. National Geographic photojournalist Debra Kellner, with Valli, offers a book about the making of the movie, also called Himalaya. Combining stills from the movie with images of the cast and crew in action (200 in total) a boom operator dangling a mike over a caravan of galloping yaks; crew members lowering a fiberglass yak down a precipice Kellner also includes her journal entries from the staged salt-delivery trek that is the film's main focus. (Abrams, $24.95 paper 168p ISBN 0-8109-2128-6; June)