The Golden Beach

A small group of farmers belonging to the Halakki Gowda tribe live by a small beach in a valley in southern India. When the Swedish film maker Hasse Wester was first there twenty years ago the farmers had little contact with the outside world. Hasse lived with the farmers for more than a year. He learned their language and developed a close friendship with a thirty year old man called Maneshwara. Today life in the valley has changed drastically. There are plenty of cafés and hotels, and white tourists in bikinis are sunbathing on the beach. In the film we follow the farmers´ encounter with the white tourists, and Hasse´s friendship with Maneshwara over a period of twenty years.