Tibetan filmmaker wins development prize at Hong Kong HAF Festival/ENG

2012. április 6./Phayul.com/TibetPress

DHARAMSHALA, April 6: Critically acclaimed Tibetan filmmaker Pema Tseden has been awarded a development prize at the recently concluded Hong Kong Asia Film Financing Forum.

The award, carrying a cash prize of $19,300 (HK$150,000), was given to Tseden to fund the development of his next project titled Balloon.

Judges at the three day event named the intriguing historical suspense film The MacLennan Affair as the top local project and Balloon as the top overseas project.

Written by Tseden, Balloon, like much of his earlier works focuses on the struggle between traditional Tibetan values and modern social conditions endured by Tibetans.

Balloon’s screenplay, which was selected for the 14th Screenplay Development Fund at the Amiens International Film Festival in 2009, examines the friction between Tibetan Buddhist beliefs and the reality of living in modern society.

Speaking about his project, Tseden noted the “inextricable part” Buddhism plays in the everyday routine of the Tibetan people in a “modern” Tibet.

“The film portrays a series of events that outlines the strong conflicts between faith and contemporary lives, between sacred and the profane,” Tseden told reporters.

Born in 1969 in Amdo, eastern Tibet, Tseden shot into international fame with his movie “The Search” which won the Special Jury Prize at the Bangkok International Film Festival in 2009.

The same year, he won the Grand Prize at the Shanghai International Film Festival. Danny Boyle, Oscar winning director of the Slumdog Millionaire, who was heading the jury later said that “The Search” was the “most challenging” file the jury saw.

“The most challenging film we saw, almost a meditation in patience as well as an exercise in it for the viewer, uncompromising but funny and humane too. We look forward to many more films from Tibet.”

An avid writer, Tseden has published over 50 short stories and novels in Tibetan and Chinese, and was a winner of the Tibetan literature prize, Drang-Char.

“I wish my camera could capture the spirit of the people of my homeland as they hold on to their dignity,” Tseden has been quoted as saying about his work.