ON THE HIPPIE TRAIL

Between the mid-1950s and the late 1970s, hundreds of thousands of young Westerners set off by car, bus or even hitchhiking, on a 6,000-kilometer journey to Kathmandu. Belonging to the last generation of the baby boom, these backpackers longed to leave behind their parents’ world, dominated by consumerism, colonialism and the looming shadow of war.

This phenomenon, later dubbed the “Hippie Trail”, was unprecedented: never before had so many people travelled solely in search of adventure, self-discovery and encounters with others. Far from being limited to the hippie movement alone, this odyssey was a complex, collective and intercultural experience – one that sheds light on key moments in contemporary history.

Based on an exceptional trove of personal archives - Super 8 films, photographs, travel diaries and more -, this documentary retraces - over the course of a summer in 1968 - the journey between Europe and Nepal, as seen through the eyes of those who lived it. A compelling story that revisits one of the 20^th century’s most fascinating utopias, and its clash with historical reality.