Pema Tseden

Documentary about China's film industry and the monumental changes in the past 40 years from beginning with propaganda films to the "5th generation" filmmakers and beyond, who embraced art and commercial films to make China the second largest box office market in the world after Hollywood.

In 2003, “SARS” quickly and fiercely spread to entire China. Everyone was afraid, staying home like their lives were stopped. Fu Zhen, a senior girl who is desperate for unrequited love, has a lively and strong, but lacks a survival instinct. A Hong Kong engineer, Mao Mingji is disappointed in love and has a dull personality. They travel to the "utopia of the heart" - Tibet. They began to heal and realize their journey of dreams.

On the Tibetan grasslands, Darje and Drolkar live a serene and ordinary life with their three sons and the grandfather. A condom sparks a series of embarrassment and dilemma, breaking the harmony of the family. What matters more in the circle of life and death, soul or reality?

After Buddhism was introduced to China during the Eastern Han Dynasty 2,000 years ago, it not only made up for the shortcomings of Confucianism in terms of ultimate concern for human beings, but also continuously collided and merged with Chinese local culture.

Stoic truck driver Jinpa picks up a silver dagger wearing hitchhiker in the desolate Kekexili plateau. The stranger suddenly reveals he’s going to kill the man who murdered his father.

A snow leopard breaks into the sheep pen of a nomad and kills nine rams. Father and son then argue: the son insists on killing the snow leopard, but the father insists on releasing it.

The film was inspired by one of the most important documentaries shot by Krzysztof Kieślowski, Talking Heads (1980). The director asked his interlocutors seemingly simple questions, such as “Who are you?” and “What do you want?”.

It’s the late 1990s in a remote Tibetan forest where poaching is widespread. A ranger is visited by one man after another, all strange...

One river, three generations, countless failures. In the late 1950s, a group of people living along the Qiantang River fought against fearsome tides for their respective beliefs.

Lao Kong came to work in Tibet for the first time and needed translator urgently. By chance, he found Jiumei, who had studied in the mainland. Although they didn't understand each other at first, they eventually became lifelong friends.

A young Tibetan monk goes back home for the New Year's celebrations. Fascinated by television, he wants to bring his family's television to the monastery to show it to his master.

While still in elementary school, young Tashi rescued a stray dog. But the stray dog is adopted and named Tashi, which makes Tashi the laughing stock of his classmates. So little Tashi plans to kill the dog Tashi, but accidentally hits him blind. Tashi has been guilty for many years and suffers from eye disease. Tashi believes that this is the curse of the dog’s owner. Years later, when he becomes a famous writer and returns to his hometown, he learns another truth.

Tharlo is an orphan. Now grown up, he makes a living as a sheep herder in the village. He has grown a ponytail, so people simply call him “Ponytail”, since nobody remembers his real name anyway. Tharlo has a remarkable memory. He remembers so many things, except his own name. He is now in his forties, and he has yet to have his first woman. Now Tharlo goes to town to take a photo for his identity card. He meets a girl in the barber’s shop who changes the course of his life. He embarks on the journey to find his true self. He sells all his sheep and those entrusted by other villagers to him for care, and decides to use the money to go out into the world with the girl, only to find himself being deceived and cheated by her. Ironically, in his journey of self-discovery, Tharlo has lost his sense of self. As he witnesses in the mirror his ponytail being cut off and leaving him bald, he can no longer see himself as a man with a history that he recognizes.

A man comes to one small Tibet town in search of a woman named Dorlma.

A group of young Tibetan boys seek retribution against a donkey that harmed one of their own, only to encounter escalating complications.

A folk performer brings his animals to the streets. Two thugs' unreasonable demands make everything more absurd. The film shows a circus in a gradual "mutilation" and portrays a man struggling in his life.

A story of an aged sheepherder, his gruff grown son (who’s having trouble conceiving a child with his wife) and the old man’s Tibetan mastiff hound – a highly prized breed, much sought after by urban Chinese – whose existence is imperiled from all sides.

Two villages in Tibet have competed in archery for a thousand years. This is the story of the competition between Dradong and Nyima who each represent their village. As the story opens, Nyima has won the annual competition and is in love with Dradong's younger sister which angers Dradong. This film depicts Tibetan tradition and encroachment of modern technology.

In A Song for You – a road movie and a music industry insider comedy, with lots of songs – young Ngawang leaves behind a nomadic existence on the Tibetan plateau for big city Lhasa nightclubs. His dream is to record an album and be heard around the country. Cutting an album costs money, which he doesn’t have. One day he meets a woman who looks just like his Loyiter, a talisman of the goddess of art and music. Impossible, says his father, as only the pure of heart meet her, only in their dreams. But, Ngawang perseveres. She takes him on a journey of discovery through life and love.

Pema's graduation film made for Beijing Film Academy, Set in rural Tibet ; it is a timeless allegory of an old nomadic couple searching for a stolen yak.