The Search is a road movie wrapped around three love stories. A director and crew drive through the Amdo region of Qinghai looking for local singers and actors to star in their filmed version of the classic Tibetan opera Prince Drime Kundun. They encounter a woman who would be perfect for the role of Drime Kundun’s wife Mande Zangmo, but she has one condition: the crew must help her find her former lover, who is now a schoolteacher in a different town. Along the way, a businessman along for the ride recounts his own sad love story as she silently listens, her face half-covered in a kerchief, leaving not much more than her infinitely eloquent eyes exposed.
Shot in exquisitely designed long takes, this brilliant film explores how stories can be told and how love can be articulated in a culture whose traditional underpinnings, under pressure, are undergoing fundamental changes. It hints at the possibility of capturing, in cinema, an evanescent spiritual beauty, almost but not quite beyond reach.
Pema Tseden
Manla Kyab, Tsondrey, Lumo Tso
China
2009
In Tibetan with English subtitles
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Credits
Screenwriter
Pema Tseden
Cinematography
Gyal Sonthar
Editor
Chen Hai Ling, Benjamin Illos and Zhou Xing
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.