A Cinematic Ode to the Transformative Power of Travel

The latest social media short from German airline Lufthansa tells the story of a designer coming home to Kathmandu, Nepal, and poses some interesting questions about the nature of travel.

Why do we travel? Venturing out into the world helps us appreciate our common bonds and our unique differences; making sense of where we come from helps us recognize the full worth of where we end up in the future. Shifts in perspective can be very life affirming and inspire us to experience the world, and what we do in it, in new ways.

Not to get too existential — it just feels good and freeing and authentic to discover our roots. This subject has become a short video series on Lufthansa airline's social media feed called #inspiredby HEIMWEH, the German term denoting a general longing for home. (Leave it to an airline to romanticize the round trip.) It follows real people as they seek to reestablish themselves in the countries of their heritage and launched October 2016 with a short about two Danish designers making a homecoming trip to Japan.

The second installment, The Colors of Home, trails NYC-based jewelry designer Arpana Rayamajhi as she returns to her hometown of Kathmandu, Nepal. It aired February 28 on Lufthansa's YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram pages, and casts questions about the meaning of home, identity, and belonging against stunning imagery of the Himalayas. It's a beautiful two-and-a-half-minute reminder of how transformative travel can be.

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