I have a spe­cial place for Tibet in my heart — espe­cially since one of my dear­est friends is a Tibetan. And I think that it’s quite a strug­gle for Tibetans today try­ing to find their iden­tity wher­ever they are in the world. It’s not easy when your home­land is no longer yours. Or that you can no longer even “visit”. And that the only images you can see of your home­land are the ones you see through films that make their way out of the bor­ders. I can’t even begin to think what it feels like for the Tibetan community.

But here is some­thing inter­est­ing hap­pen­ing on Mon­day. Acclaimed film­mak­ers, Ritu Sarin and Ten­z­ing Sonam will pre­miere “The Sun Behind the Clouds: Tibet’s Strug­gle for Free­dom” in an event jointed hosted by Friends of Tibet and Think Tibet.

The details:

Win­ner of the Sil­ver Conch Award at the 11th Mum­bai Inter­na­tional Film Fes­ti­val, “The Sun Behind the Clouds” will be screened at the Cen­tre for Film and Drama, 5th floor, 71 Sona Tow­ers, Millers Road, Ban­ga­lore on Mon­day, March 01, 2010 at 6pm. The doc­u­men­tary will be pre­sented by Ten­zin Tsun­due, Tibetan poet-activist. Entry is free.

In The Sun Behind the Clouds, Sarin and Sonam take a uniquely Tibetan per­spec­tive on the tri­als and tribu­la­tions of the Dalai Lama and his peo­ple as they con­tinue their strug­gle for free­dom in the face of deter­mined sup­pres­sion by one of the world’s biggest and most pow­er­ful nations. The film­mak­ers had inti­mate access to the Dalai Lama and fol­lowed him over the course of an event­ful year, which included the 2008 protests in Tibet, the inter­na­tional response to it, the Bei­jing Olympics, and the break­down in talks between the Dalai Lama and the Chi­nese gov­ern­ment. Set against this back­drop, the film explores the inter­play between the per­sonal and the his­toric, spir­i­tu­al­ity and pol­i­tics, and the ten­sion between the Dalai Lama’s efforts to find a peace­ful res­o­lu­tion to the Tibet sit­u­a­tion based on com­pro­mise and dia­logue, and the impa­tience of a younger gen­er­a­tion of Tibetans who are ready to take a more con­fronta­tional course.

The film had its North Amer­i­can pre­miere at the recently con­cluded Palm Springs Inter­na­tional Film Fes­ti­val in Cal­i­for­nia where it became the focus of much media atten­tion when the Chi­nese gov­ern­ment tried to get the fes­ti­val to remove the film, osten­si­bly for its anti-China stand. When the fes­ti­val refused, two Chi­nese films were with­drawn in retal­i­a­tion. The film had three sold-out screen­ings and a fourth was added when it was voted one of the Best of the Fest films.

“In a wel­come depar­ture from many pre­vi­ous films about the decades-long fric­tion between Tibet and China, “The Sun Behind the Clouds: Tibet’s Strug­gle for Free­dom” pro­vides a two-sided view of the com­plex polit­i­cal and social dynam­ics within and out­side Tibet. For the “strug­gle” in the film’s title is not merely against China but also between com­pet­ing Tibetan views regard­ing the best strat­egy: co-existence or inde­pen­dence. The film is essen­tial view­ing for any­one who cares about the fate of the moun­tain region and the legacy of the Dalai Lama.” (Vari­ety, a lead­ing US film trade journal)

To know more, visit: www.thesunbehindtheclouds.com or con­tact: Ten­zin Tsun­due on email: tenzin.tundue@friendsoftibet.org

Hope to see some of you there!