This was an excellent movie. I read the facts about it after seeing it and was stunned to find that this was true. Absolutely worth watching. Amazing courage and resilience. Read the Wiki page after you've seen the film.

This kept me on the edge of my seat. For the movie the film makers added some Stasi aspects which worked well, as there are so many people in the world who really don't know much about this dark era of German history other than that there was a 'wall' between east and west Germany. Younger generations will practically not even have heard of that or remember or know about the huge news event this was worldwide when the wall came down. (The wall = Barbed wire, razor wire and soldiers shooting at you. We should be ashamed in our western societies where we put up walls to this day!! Has nothing about ugliness and meaningless control of citizens been learned???) Watch it. Total suspense from beginning to end.

From Venice Film Festival 2019, Tromsø International Film Festival 2020, Tokyo FILMeX 2019, Shanghai International Film Festival 2020 to Oslo Films from the South Festival 2019, this was the film that attracted a special attention ! Director Pema Tseden's name is now remembered around the world, thanks to this amazing work of film art where a Tibetan sheepherding family attempts to deal with a seismic event in their lives.

Truthful, poetic, full of courage and resilience, this movie will show you a real world of faith, life in close connection with the forces of nature, and a power of individual and the family - positive and negative!

Felt in the hands of a master storyteller from the opening scenes shot through an opaque film, that we soon learn is a balloon. The narrative and cinematography are so captivating we forgot we were in a theatre. We are in rural Tibet, yet the family lives in a very modern world, albeit controlled by what is considered modern for Chinese society. Yet the characters are as sophisticated as any one in Paris or Melbourne. A joy to watch.