SNOW LEOPARD

a film by PEMA TSEDEN

Drama | CHINA | 110 mins

Tibetan/mandarin + English subtitles

in cinemas 22 November 2024

Shot in the stunning high altitudes of the Tibetan Plateau, Snow Leopard is the story of a majestic yet deadly snow leopard and its complicated coexistence with the communities in this remote part of Tibet. When a local snow leopard claims the lives of nine rams belonging to a herder, tensions escalate as the herder seeks retribution, while his father, monk brother and law enforcement advocate to save the leopard at all costs.

Widely considered the ‘father’ of Tibetan cinema, director Pema Tseden tragically passed away as the film neared completion last year and is missed by cinephiles, filmmakers and the film world who continue to feel the loss of this outstanding auteur, but whose memory lives on through his outstanding body of work.

THE DIRECTOR

Pema Tseden was born on 3 December 1969 to a family of nomadic herders in the Amdo region of Tibet. Pema long held a fascination for storytelling, both through literature and cinema. As a writer, he had numerous works published in both Tibetan and Mandarin, many having been translated into other various other languages.

Pema became the first ethnic Tibetan to attend the prestigious Beijing Film Academy where he studied directing and scriptwriting. He was particularly influenced by Tibetan cultural traditions, oral literature and folk tales, depicting striking representations of a largely unknown Tibet and contemporary Tibetan society to the wider world. All of Pema’s films are shot in his native Amdo and are either entirely or mostly in his native Amdo dialect of Tibetan.

On 8 May 2023, at over 4,400m above sea level near the high-altitude lake of Yamdruk Tso, Pema was suddenly taken ill and passed away at the age of 53.

Pema is widely considered to be the leading light of the ‘Tibetan New Wave’ – a pioneer and trailblazer who inspired a new generation of Tibetan filmmakers inside Tibet working amid challenging conditions.

Snow Leopard premiered at Venice Film Festival 2023 and is the third film by Pema Tseden to be released by Day for Night in the UK and Ireland, following earlier releases of Tharlo in 2016 and Balloon in 2020.

See longer biography here.

Two heartfelt tributes to Pema Tseden by his collaborator Shide Nyima and Chone Yum Tsering can be found here on the Tibetan cultural website High Peaks Pure Earth which carries translations of Tibetan writings and an excellent resource on contemporary Tibetan culture:

https://highpeakspureearth.com/tributes-to-tibetan-film-director-pema-tseden-by-shide-nyima-and-chone-yum-tsering/