Life is full of unexpected sorrows, and audiences have a hard time forgetting those of Nynima, the protagonist of Sonthar Gyal’s The Sun Beaten Path. Based on a true story, this is a film about redemption. It opens with Nynima, a young Tibetan, driving a new tractor, en route to pick up his mother and elder brother. When his mother is accidentally crushed by the family’s new vehicle, Nynima enters into a self-loathing so profound that he cannot forgive himself, and decides as penance that he must kowtow all the way to Lhasa. On a back road, he meets an old man who knows Nynima’s tragic story. The man decides to accompany him on his journey.

The film has little dialogue. It was shot in just 25 days in the chill of a cold March on the Tibetan Plateau, but post-production took nine months, mainly due to Sonthar Gyal’s tinkering with the score and recording quality. This is his first film, and one that he describes as “honest and clean work.”

Sonthar Gyal, following the cue of many Chinese directors, found his protagonist in a small village—an uneducated boy with “pure eyes.” The film itself is tight, with the plot jumping back and forth in time, and the director uses a range of long shots and closeups that compare the vastness of Nynima’s surroudings and his own personal hell. The camera closely follows Nynima’s mental processes, from internal anguish to eventual relief.

Though made by an all-Tibetan crew, this film’s point is not limited to nationality. This quiet and simple piece of cinema contains an inspiring universal message—that the present will always give way to the future, and that our only hope is to continually move forward. ¥40. The director will hold a talk after the screening.

DETAILS

What: The Sun Beaten Path

Where: Broadway Cinematheque Moma

When: Fri., Nov. 18, Sat., Nov. 26 and Wed., Nov. 30, 7:30pm

Tel: 8438-8258 ext. 8008