DHARAMSHALA, October 2: A film based on Tibetan singer Yiga Gyalnang’s trial and tribulations is making its way into the international market, said its director Arvind Iyer. Namgyal Lhamo, Netherlands based Tibetan singer played the lead role as Yiga Gyalnang.
Los Angeles based agent House of Film has picked the film for worldwide distribution and added to its spiritual cinema collection.
The eighty-minute film tells the story of Yiga Gyalnang who was abducted and thrown into Drapchi prison, one of the most dreaded prisons run by China, for politically sensitive content of her songs. After years of isolation and torture, she breaks free and escapes to Nepal and then to Europe, taking with her an unbroken soul, tremendous strength and her voice that could never be silenced.
Speaking about the film, Namgyal Lhamo said, “In a larger context, it is a story about Tibet told through a character. The film prompts audiences to think deeply about what is happening in Tibet, and how Tibetans have until now, dealt with it.”
Namgyal Lhamo was awarded the Best Female Solo Artist from India/Tibet at the 2007 International Music Awards held by Britain’s Musicaid along with American partners BroadJam Inc.
The film was screened as official selections at film festivals in Poland, Italy and India.
Noted Chinese artist Ai Weiwei said, “It is a sad and moving film that makes us realize that the plight of the Tibetan people is the plight of humankind.”
‘The film gives us something to take back home,” said Tibetan independence activist and writer Tenzin Tsundue. “It shows us what happens when the spiritually evolved people of Tibet are suppressed with guns and there is no escape from it, and how they deal with real challenge to the teachings of the Buddha.”
At the 35th Cairo International Film Festival the film, with its working title Drapchi, screened against the backdrop of an impending political revolution at Tahrir Square was strongly received by audiences, Arvind recalls.
