High plains director

Tibetan director Pema Tseden's life has been in a spin recently. Just arrived back in Beijing after a three-week visit to the US, where he screened his films and exchanged ideas in several universities and Asian societies, Pema hasn't yet overcome the jetlag. During the sleepiest hours of the day, he still comes out to meet his crew about his new film, although he can barely open his eyes.

Two cellphones rang continuously in his coat pocket, with the occasional text messages beeping in. Pema answered every one of them without delay, switching between Chinese and Tibetan. Pema speaks Amdo dialect, one of the three Tibetan dialects widely spoken in Qinghai Province, the same as the characters in his films.

Fast fame

As a director who has only graduated from Beijing Film Academy last year, fame seems to have arrived too fast for Pema. His first long film, The Silent Holy Stones, won a fistfull of international awards and nominations; and he was invited to New York as one of the five directors representing Chinese independent cinema, together with Jia Zhangke and Li Yang, whose films won prizes in Venice and Berlin.

Read more at Global Times