"R. I. P. Tibetan filmmaker and writer Pema Tseden (1969-2023), whose untimely departure is reportedly due to complications from altitude sickness. Bequeathing us with 9 feature films (with two still in post-production), he has been the torchbearer of the emergent Tibetan cinema for over two decades. With his career going from strength to strength, it is a tremendous loss for Chinese film industry and cinephiles across the globe.
BALLOON is his antepenultimate film, a self-contained story set in the 1990s, about a Tibetan family of sheep farmers living in the back of beyond. The very first scene is a shot seen behind a transparent "balloon", only to reveal that it is actually a condom, which is mistaken by two tykes as a plaything. It is a comical opening, bringing a racy, secular tang to the often mythicized denizens of Tibet."
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