TRAVELLERS AND MAGICIANS is the first feature film to be shot entirely in the kingdom of Bhutan, and, truth be told, the mountain-bound locale is probably reason enough to see the movie. Dondup is a Bhutanese university graduate with an enviable officer position in a bucolic village. He's smitten with America, though, and longs to travel to the land of the free in search of prosperity and city life. After receiving a letter promising him a visa, the curmudgeonly protagonist begins to hitchhike toward his dream, meeting up with a monk and a papermaker's charming daughter, among others. During their travels the sly monk recites a lengthy story regarding a country boy's descent into seduction and suspicion. The heavy-handed cuts between the main plot and the monk's fable render the latter an overobvious mirror of Dondup's plight. In this regard, writer-director Khyentse Norbu doesn't have enough faith in his audience but rather accents moments of insight with a patronizing degree of zeal. One can see how Dondup's journey might have worked as a sort of Jim Jarmusch wandering cine-poem, but, as is, Travellers and Magicians is a simplistic tale offset by splendorous scenery. (Max Goldberg)