The Belt and Road Film Tour: Golden Goblet Awards Winner - ALA CHANGSO Unveiled at Tallinn Black Nig

The event scene

On November 29 (Tallinn), ALA CHANGSO met the audiences and was screened at Tallinn Black Night Film Festival in Estonia. This is also the first time that ALA CHANGSO was screened in Europe after the Vancouver International Film Festival and the QCinema International Film Festival in Philippines. Before the screening, Shanghai International Film Festival representative JIN Yangguang, ALA CHANGSO overseas distribution representative SONG Yiran, and film critic YANG Jinsong introduced the film to the audiences.

ALA CHANGSO is the winner of both this year's Film Festival Jury Award and Best Screenplay Award. The film focuses on a Tibetan reorganized family, and examines the complex relationships from a delicate and special perspective. While conveying the delicate emotions, it also reveals the enchanting beauty of Tibetan. Unlike previous Tibetan-themed films, ALA CHANGSO tells the story from the perspective of the local people. The exploration of Tibetan culture, beliefs and values all show a rare and locally generated quality.

Film critic YANG Jinsong thinks that this is a typical road movie featuring the emblematic narrative mode of such films, yet finding its uniqueness in its setting - Tibetan -among others. Exotic sceneries and religious beliefs has brought ALA CHANGSO and other such road movies an exclusive charm. Director Sonthar Gyal is dedicated to depict people, the relationships between people and the conflicts, reconciliation and fulfillment of dreams, instead of protagonist setting or rendering of the natural situation usually adopted for the same subject. The devoutness of the Tibetan people on their pilgrimage find an expression in the secular desire in ALA CHANGSO: "Even if death can separate us, love will never." This warmth overcomes the barriers between nationality and language.

Florence Girot, representative of the International Federal of Film Producers Associations, Igor Soukmanov, Curator of Minsk International Film Festival in Belarus, and representatives from the China-Estonia Friendship Association attended the event. Igor believes that the film tells a simple story, but expresses a touching and deep emotion. The film, drawing the attention of the local people, was screened four times at Tallinn Black Night Film Festival in Estonia, with all tickets sold out early.

Meanwhile, ALA CHANGSO is also one of the Golden Goblet Awards winning films screened in international film festivals in recent years, which fully reflects the platform influence of the Belt and Road Film Festival Alliance.

Admission of audiences

In recent years, Tallinn Black Night Film Festival in Estonia has maintained a friendly cooperation with Shanghai International Film Festival. Last year, the two sides signed the "Belt and Road" film culture exchange and cooperation agreement; in June this year, Tallinn Black Night Film Festival became one of the first signing member institutions of the Belt and Road Film Festival Alliance established during Shanghai International Film Festival. And at this year’s Tallinn Black Night Film Festival, in addition to the screening of ALA CHANGSO, the two sides jointly held an industrial forum named "China-Europe Film Cooperation Forum: Fashion or Future".

The cooperation between the two international festivals in the category of competitive feature films as platforms will drive closer and more frequent exchanges between Chinese and European films, and build a stronger bridge for the film exchange and collaboration between the two cities.