Pema Tseden's last film 'Snow Leopard' to be released in China

"Snow Leopard," the final film of the late famous Tibetan director and screenwriter Pema Tseden is slated for national release on April 3 with both Chinese and English subtitles.

Last year the film won the Grand Prix at the 36th Tokyo International Film Festival.

Tseden passed away of illness in early May of 2023, which is also a loss to the Chinese cinema. Funded and produced by streaming platform iQiyi, "Snow Leopard" is the director's eighth Tibetan-language film that cost him three years to make in Maduo County, Qinghai Province.

Tseden continued to take lens at the culture, life and emotion of the Tibetan people in the movie. When an endangered snow leopard kills nine goats of a herder, a father and his adult son hold different opinions on how to deal with the captured beast. The film set to the backdrop of a high-altitude plateau, also explores the coexistence between humans, nature, and animals.

For the first time in the Chinese cinema, the film extensively uses high industrial level CG technology to create the first high-definition digital images of a snow leopard.

The film premiered out of competition at last year's 80th Venice Film Festival. It was later screened at the 48th Toronto International Film Festival.

Born in 1969, Tseden used to work as a primary school teacher and a civil servant after he graduated from the Northwest University for Nationalities, majoring in Tibetan Language and Literature. Motivated by his enthusiasm for film, Tseden advanced his studies at the Beijing Film Academy.

Tseden made a lot of thought-provoking films which received acclaims from both critics and audience. His credits include his directorial debut "The Silent Holy Stones," romantic tale "Soul Searching," comedy drama "Tharlo," drama films "Jinpa" and "Balloon."