On July 25th, the 75th Venice International Film Festival unveiled the line-up of films to be screened during the festival. JINPA, directed by Chinese Tibetan director Pema Tseden and produced by Wong Kar-wai and Jacky Pang, was shortlisted in the Orizzonti (Horizons) section. This is Pema Tseden’s another film to be screened at the Venice International Film Festival after THARLO, which was screened at this festival three years ago.
This film tells a story of revenge and redemption, in which a Khampa man, who has been seeking the man who killed his father since his childhood, meets with a truck driver, who hit and killed a sheep, in a road in the vast wilderness. This film is adapted from Tsering Norbu’s short story Killer and Pema Tseden’s short story of the same name. Pema Tseden said, “These two stories focus on a similar topic: Redemption. And they also contain scenes on roads, so it’s easy to combine them.” Based on these two original stories, Pema Tseden has also made a lot of changes and developments in terms of plot, details and themes, but maintains the spirits in the original stories. According to him, he only used a short period of time to create the first draft of the script, only one or two weeks, “Then we made a lot of adjustments and created at least the fifth and the sixth drafts”. When the script was finished, Pema Tseden chose venture investment. This film won the Asia Project Market Script Award in the 19th Busan International Film Festival before this project obtained the approval and entered the phase of shooting. When talking about the domestic environment for film creation, Pema Tseden, who had already directed many films, said, “At the moment, the investment environment in China is much better than that when I was shooting my first and second films.”
According to the needs of this film, Pema Tseden chose to shoot it in Hoh Xil, a plateau with an altitude of over 5,000 meters, where the air was thin, with a lack of water and power. This made the shooting very challenging. “The main problem is whether the creator can get adapted to the shooting environment, because the altitude is very high. Some members who cannot adapt to it were sent back. But generally it’s OK.”
JINPA is the first film created under the cooperation between Pema Tseden and Jet Tone Film Production. As the producer of this film, Wong Kar-wai has participated in the production of this film in depth from script to shooting. He said, “I like Pema Tseden’s previous films very much, which are all very sincere. He’s an important writer and director. We should care and support him more. It’s my great honor to participate in his film. And I’m also very happy that JINPA is shortlisted in this year’s Venice International Film Festival.” When talking about the cooperation with Wong Kar-wai, Pema Tseden said “it’s very pleasant”, and “he’s a real producer by all means, not like some others who just have such a title. He doesn’t force you to accept his ideas, but proposes some detailed suggestions, which makes this film much more better.”
Before shooting this film, Pema Tseden has rich experience as a writer. Since 2005, this Tibetan writer who had been writing about the Tibetan areas in Mandarin and Tibentan began to describe the local conditions and customs of these areas with “film languages”. The main storyline focuses on the thinking in integration of traditions and modern factors. Before THARLO, his first film THE SILENT HOLY STONES and OLD DOG in 2011 are both considered as excellent films, which are called the “trilogy of Tibetan areas” by Pema Tseden with SOUL SEARCHING. In both his stories and films, we can see more thinking in cool tone in his own inner world. The simple stories and styles reflect many social and cultural problems which cannot be solved: The nomadic lifestyle in Tibetan areas, moral standards, historic relics and modern civilizations, identity concerns and loss. In terms of shooting and making independent films, Pema Tseden believes that the biggest challenge for the creator is “creation”.
During the his creation, film festivals are integral. His “trilogy of Tibetan areas” have won awards in many domestic and overseas film festivals. His fifth Tibetan film THARLO was shortlisted in the Orizzonti Section of the 72th Venice International Film Festival in 2015. Pema Tseden said, “I’ve participated in so many film festivals, each of which has its own characteristics.” For him, many festivals are so impressive. “For example, in the Locarno International Film Festival in Switzerland, several years ago, SOUL SEARCHING was shortlisted in the main competition section of this festival. The outdoor projection of films every evening in this festival was so impressive. Every evening, thousands of viewers watched films outdoor, despite of bad weather. That feeling is very special.”