Born in rural Qinghai, Pema Tseden (1969–2023) revolutionized Chinese cinema by creating films that combine standardized narrative forms with Tibetan culture and language.
The Museum of the Moving Image celebrates this bold, prolific director, who died last year at age 53, with a film retrospective from Friday, Sept. 6, to Sunday, Sept. 15.
Programmed by guest curator Shelly Kraicer, the series covers everything from the artful realism of Tseden’s earlier films, which explored the early 21st century lives of rural Tibetans in China with carefully framed, exquisitely timed long takes and nonprofessional actors, to his later works, which experimented with a visionary, occasionally hallucinatory visual style that opened audiences to the spiritual dimensions of Tibetan experience.
Editor’s note: Tseden was the first Tibetan to graduate from the prestigious Beijing Film Academy. Nevertheless, his films had to pass stringent Chinese censorship.
The schedule is below or click here. All films are in Tibetan with English subtitles. Some contain Chinese dialogue.
Sept. 6 at 6:30 pm: The Silent Manistone (2002) + The Grassland (2004)
The first short is a simple tale of a young monk. The second one follows an elderly couple who search for the thief of their yak. Basic moral quandaries—what is a crime? what is justice?—are revealed to be more complicated than they seem.
Sept. 6 at 8 pm: The Silent Holy Stones (2005)
A young Tibetan lama in a monastery discovers the delights of binge-watching a Chinese TV serial. He shuttles between watching the shows at home and in his monastery with his friend, and attends—and hilariously, interrupts—a live traditional Tibetan opera.
Sept. 7 at 2:30 pm: The Search (2009)
Shot in exquisite long takes, this road movie is wrapped around three love stories. It explores how tales can be told and how love can be articulated in a culture whose traditions are under great stress.
Sept. 7 at 5 pm: Old Dog (2010)
An elderly Tibetan shepherd, his son, and his daughter-in-law own an old Tibetan mastiff, a sheep-herding dog whose breed is a prized possession for Chinese buyers. Their dog is sold, recovered, resold, stolen, and recovered again, passing through the hands of a Chinese dealer, the local police, and Tibetan dog rustlers.
Sept. 8 at 4 pm (also listed as 5 pm): Jinpa (2018)
Two men named “Jinpa” meet on a mountain road. The sunglasses-wearing Jinpa is a truck driver (and Neapolitan song fancier), who has struck and killed a sheep. He picks up the other Jinpa, who’s on a search for his father’s killer. Eventually the two men’s stories, dreams, and fates intertwine, as moral questions of karma and compassion hang in the balance.
Sept. 13 at 6:30 pm: Tharlo (2015)
Tharlo is a Tibetan shepherd with a phenomenal memory. He recites the entire text of Mao’s “Serve the People” essay to a police officer when he applies for an ID card. Needing to wash his long, braided hair for his ID photo, Tharlo meets beautiful hairstylist Yangtso, who charms him and takes him out for a wild night on the town.
Sept. 14 at 6:15 pm: The Sacred Arrow
This experiment in commercial ethnic cinema is a full-blown, gorgeously shot, widescreen modern fable with professional actors and a largely Chinese crew. Handsome Nyima and brooding Dradon are two ace archers from rival villages who vie in an annual contest. Dradon objects to Nyima courting his sister.
Sept. 15 at 2:30 pm: Balloon
The two sons of virile Tibetan shepherd Dargye mistake their parents’ condoms for balloons. Their mother, Drolkar, puts up with her husband’s robust sex drive. Drolkar’s sister, the enigmatic nun Shangchu Drolma, visits while Dargye is looking for a ram to impregnate his flock of ewes. When a family member suddenly dies, the urgent need to identify his reincarnation threatens to tear the family apart.
Sept. 15 at 5:30 pm: Snow Leopard
The last film Tseden finished before his death is a semi-mystical fable about the spiritual connection between a young Tibetan monk and a snow leopard, who has killed nine rams belonging to the young monk’s brother, Jinpa. Jinpa is furious and demands compensation; otherwise he’ll kill the leopard. But these magnificent beasts are rare, protected animals. As a TV news crew arrives, local officials and the police try to mediate, leading to a tense standoff.
Museum of the Moving Image is located at 36-01 35th Ave. in Astoria’s Kaufman Arts District.
Images: Courtesy of the dGenerate Collection at Icarus Films/Museum of the Moving Image