Tharlo is a Tibetan shepherd from Qinghai blessed with a phenomenal memory: he can recite the entire text of Mao’ famous essay ” the People” in Chinese. He demonstrates this to a duly impressed local policeman while he applies for an ID card. The policeman informs Tharlo that he is required to wash his long braided hair for his ID photo and sends him to a hair salon in town, where he meets beautiful hairstylist Yangtso. As a pastoralist seriously out of his element in town, Tharlo becomes culturally and morally disoriented and gradually yields to Yangtso’ charms. She then takes him out for a wild and disorienting night on the town….
Pema Tseden and DP Lü Songye’ mesmerizing black-and-white long takes frame two superb performances by famous Tibetan TV and stage comedian Shide Nyima as Tharlo and pop singer Yangshik Tso as Yangtso. This fable about the clash of Tibetan cultures — traditional and contemporary, pastoral and urban — is a penetrating psycho-sexual study of masculinity in crisis and a riveting portrayal of rapid social change, and much more. This may be Pema Tseden’ most sublime film: desperately sad, provocatively beautiful.
Shot in monochrome, using long, meditative takes and locked shots, this is a film that requires investment on the part of the viewer. It repays the effort – it’s a rich allegory for a nation torn between past and future.
4/5 Wendy Ide, The Observer
The lovely, loving craft extends to gentle, haunting sound design: these worlds are both concrete and dreamy in Tseden’s eye, geometrically exquisite yet filled with implications of wandering and wonder.
Ray Pride, Newcity
A warm, wise fable of uncertainty.
Kevin Harley, Total Film
Pema Tseden
Shide Nyima, Yangshik Tso, Jinpa
China
2015
In Mandarin and Tibetan with English subtitles
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Credits
Screenwriter
Pema Tseden
Cinematography
Lu Songye
Editor
Ching-Sung Liao, Song Bing
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.
The Silent Holy Stones
In Pema Tseden's first feature, a very young Tibetan lama living in a monastery in Qinghai discovers the delights of binge-watching a Chinese TV serial, just one aspect of the contradictions he will have to navigate in a culture steeped in tradition.
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.
First Steps: Pema Tseden Short Films
Pema Tseden was the first Tibetan director to graduate from the Beijing Film Academy. The Silent Manistone (2002) and his graduation film, The Grassland (2004) are fascinating sketches for later works.
Old Dog
In what may be Pema Tseden's darkest film, a Tibetan mastiff is sold, recovered, re-sold, stolen, and recovered yet again, passing through the hands of an ethnic Chinese dealer, the local police, and Tibetan dog rustlers.
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.