TIBETAN director Pema Tseden’s black-and-white movie “Tharlo” had its world premiere in the Venice Film Festival’s Orizzonti section this week.

    Adapted from a short story written by the director himself, the movie centers on a shepherd whose greatest ambition is to serve the people. But his arrival in the city and his encounter with a girl soon shatter all his illusions. Tibetan comedian Shide Nyima was cast in the lead role as Tharlo.

    “Tharlo is typical of rural Tibetans of the present generation. They are innocent and have never seen the big outside world. This is a story that shows them in a state of confusion, disorientation and desensitization in modern culture,” said Pema Tseden in Venice. “This film is in black and white because I wanted to show a kind of stubbornness in the character who simply believes that the world is either black or white.”

    Pema Tseden has filmed several documentaries and art house movies on modern Tibetan life such as “The Silent Holy Stones” (2005), “The Search” (2009) and “The Old Dog” (2011). His subject is consistent: the contemporary culture of and life in Tibet, a practice that consciously puts his films in contrast with the exotic fiction features about Tibet that have been produced by outsiders.

    (SD-Agencies)