Capture Life in Modern Tibet.
Director: Pema Tseden – Writer: Pema Tseden – Stars: Sonam Wangmo, Jinpa, Yangshik Tso.
Tibetan film “Balloon” will be screened for the first time in Hungary. Before the premiere will be screened at the Apollo cinema @ Pécs October, 15. 2020. Nationalwide premieres is to be in November, 12 .2020.
The “Ballon” film already earned 13 wins & 20 nominations. Pema Tseden films also have been recognized internationally, but most notably for garnering top honors in China including a Golden Rooster Best Directorial Debut Award (for The Silent Holy Stones) and a Shanghai International Film Festival Jury Grand Prix (The Search).
Pema Tseden is the first director in China ever to film movies entirely in the Tibetan language. Also first-ever film made in Tibet to have been shot entirely with a Tibetan crew. The movie speaking in Mandarin language (due to the last-minute unavailability of an Amdo Tibetan translator), but in the Hungarian cinemas will be Hungarian subtitles.
On one level, the film reflects a search for Tibet’s disappearing culture. It is a dilemma between the soul and reality. The trick with the “Balloon” film is that, like all the things that come from strongly traditional culture. Tibet has always been mythologized and worshipped, and People’s psychological expectations, experiences of Tibet are stuck in the past and it has to be taken as it is. The films focus on the basic condition of people in Tibet, as well as their basic emotional life. The film is quite impressive due to beautiful locations like wide open spaces and mountain landscapes, but also thanks to Lu Songye’s sure-handed camerawork.
The director Pema Tseden once said that Tibet has always been mythologized and worshipped, and made more remote. People’s psychological expectations and experiences of Tibet are stuck in the past. They don’t understand the new Tibet.
Perma Tseden – director and author – has received numerous literary awards and his works have been translated into English, French, German, Japanese and Czech.
Journey Through New Tibet – in a nutshell: A family struggles against the conflicting dictates of nature, spirituality, politics, and free will. Synopsis … Dargye and his wife, Drolkar, are involved in animal husbandry in a hidden corner of Tibet. Of their three boys, only one is a schoolboy, the other two are helped by their grandfather. However, a small misunderstanding will break the harmony of the family and they will face awkward complications. For the young couple must you decide: to continue their lives according to Buddhist teachings or the values dictated by modern society?
This is a sensitive issue, since the exiled Tibetan leader, the Dalai Lama, has accused China of “cultural genocide” since it occupied Tibet in 1951. “The Search” – Pema Tseden’s latest film, won the Grand Jury Prize at Shanghai‘s recent International Film Festival and is slated to be shown at the upcoming Locarno film festival in Switzerland.
The film has an open ending … A bit exotic and hard to follow for those not quite acquainted with the traditions … anyway worthwhile not to miss this movie.
Rolling in Budapest 