TORONTO: Two highly anticipated titles in the Contemporary World Cinema section of the 43rd Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), which kicked off here on Thursday, has put the spotlight on Tibet, a part of the world that suffers continuing political repression and does not have a functional movie industry.
One of these two TIFF entries, Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam's "The Sweet Requiem", is from India.
The world premiere of the director duo's second narrative feature is scheduled for Sunday morning at TIFF Lightbox here.
The other, Pema Tseden's "Jinpa", is from China and is produced by celebrated filmmaker Wong Kar-wai.
Both films have been shot in difficult terrains.
"It is a huge challenge making a Tibetan film because of the absence of an ecosystem supported by a large enough audience base," says Sarin, who is based in Dharamshala, where she and her husband Tenzing Sonam, born in India to Tibetan refugee parents, organize a well-regarded annual festival of independent cinema.
"The Sweet Requiem", produced by Sarin and US-based Shrihari Sathe, is about a 26-year-old woman living in exile in Delhi.
She is yet to live down the tragic turn that the escape from Tibet across a high mountain pass with her father 18 years ago took.
Her chance comes when she stumbles upon the guide who she believes was responsible.
"Jinpa", from a Tibetan director with several critically acclaimed feature films under his belt, centres on a truck driver who picks up a traveller who is on the way to avenge the death of his father.
Both men are named Jinpa and in the course of the journey, their stories begin to overlap with each other.
"Jinpa", a screen adaptation of two stories - Tsering Norbu's The Slayer and Pema Tseden's I Ran Over a Sheep, is set to world premiere here on Tuesday.
Another film set among Tibetans in exile, German debutant Marvin Litwak's "Pawo", which opened in movie halls Germany in April this year, is being promoted in the Toronto Film Market by Munich-based sales outfit More Films.
Litwak is himself a son of an immigrant family from Poland and Austria.
"Pawo" tells the story of a young man who, after the death of his father, is jailed after the Great Uprising of 2008 and, following his release, is forced to escape to India.
But once there, he has to choose between starting a new life in exile and continuing the struggle for freedom.
The film is reportedly inspired in part by the life of Jamphel Yeshi, a Tibetan activist who self-immolated in Delhi a few years ago in protest against the persecution of his people in China.