The two little sons of the virile Tibetan shepherd Dargye (played with superbly gruff energy by Pema Tseden’s favourite actor Jinpa) and his wife Drolkar mistake their parents’ hidden condoms for balloons, with unexpectedly comic results. Animal potency parallels human desires: Dargye is searching for a suitable ram to impregnate his flock of ewes. Meanwhile, Drolkar’s sister, the enigmatic nun Shangchu Drolma, visits bearing romantic secrets of her own. Drolkar is an adept manager of her rambunctious children, her demanding husband, and her traumatized sister. When a family member suddenly dies, the urgent need to attend to their reincarnation threatens to tear the family apart.
Balloon is fascinated with ideas of potency, pregnancy, and the possibilities for women’s body autonomy in a patriarchal and traditional Tibetan family. Cinematographer Lü Songye’s spectacularly coloured compositions propel Pema Tseden’s vision in darker, mysterious directions. Captured in semi-realist, semi-hallucinatory style, the dead, the reincarnated, and the living interweave ambiguously in this spiritual world where the stakes can’t be higher.
Community Partner
Pema Tseden
Sonam Wangmo, Jinpa, Yangshik Tso
China
2019
In Tibetan with English subtitles
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Credits
Screenwriter
Pema Tseden
Cinematography
Songye Lu
Editor
Jin Di, Ching-Sung Liao
Original Music
Peyman Yazdanian
Also in This Series
Tibetan director Pema Tseden became one of the most remarkable filmmakers of this century, revolutionizing the representation of Tibet and Tibetans and sharing his visions of authentic Tibetan life with the entire film-going world by reimagining how narrative cinematic fiction could operate within so-called “Chinese minority cinema”.
The Search
Shot in exquisite long takes, this brilliant film is a road movie wrapped around three love stories. A director and crew are looking for local cast to star in their film version of the classic Tibetan opera Prince Drime Kundun.
Snow Leopard
The last film Pema Tseden finished before his death at age 53 is an enthralling, semi-mystical fable about the deep spiritual connection between a young Tibetan priest and a snow leopard responsible for killing livestock belonging to the priest's brother.
Balloon
The young sons of virile Tibetan shepherd Dargye mistake their parents' condoms for balloons. Meanwhile Dargye is looking for a ram to impregnate his flock. Balloon is fascinated with ideas of potency, pregnancy, and the possibilities for female autonomy.
The Sacred Arrow
A romantic, gorgeously shot, widescreen modern fable, this is a marked departure from Pema Tseden's usual stye. Handsome Nyima and brooding Dradon are ace archers from rival villages who vie in an annual contest for the ultimate prize, the Sacred Arrow.