Always Good Movies

Direction: Pema Tseden
Country: China

Snow Leopard, the final film by Pema Tseden, impresses with its stunning visuals but falters in story development and character depth. Tibetan culture takes center stage in this comedy-drama, which carries the intriguing simplicity of a fable. However, its execution often feels overly theatrical, preventing it from leaving a lasting impact.

The humor wears thin over time, and the film’s polished aesthetic renders some scenes overly staged. The narrative also suffers from the repetitive use of its central motif. Snow Leopard is carefully and calculatingly naive, with a story structure that remains distractingly uninspired. It aims for gravity but its sincerity falls flat. Tseden will likely be more enduringly remembered for Balloon (2019).

Direction: Pema Tseden
Country: China

This intimate drama film with surprising dollops of cultural and religious beliefs, censorship, abortion-rights and determined spirituality floats by like a dream, anchored in deep Tibetan traditions. It’s funny and tragic in equal measures, stressing the differences that divide men and women as well as the gaps between law and religion.

Shooting with artistic taste and unfussy aesthetic, Chinese writer-director of Tibetan ethnicity Pema Tseden (Tharlo, 2015; Jinpa, 2018) crafts a delicate, enveloping spell that often opposes the harshness of the situations described. The plot hinges on the choice of its characters, following a family of sheepherders - Dargye (Jinpa), Drolkar (Sonam Wangmo) and their three sons - who become affected by the weight of tradition, religious conviction, taboo, loss and unplanned pregnancy. The bucolic landscape of the Qinghai Lake region may remain intact but the times are definitely not the same around there.

Unhurriedly delivered, Balloon plays out like a naturalistic fable in which ancient traditions clash with a more modern vision. It becomes strangely moving during the peacefully elegiac third act, and it’s beauty, unpretentiousness and message should be enough to appeal beyond its art house niche.