Tibet's children

AUT/NEPAL/INDIA 2013, 45 min

 

A filmic documentation about young Tibetans living in exile and about the efforts of committed artists and civilians to support them in preserving their cultural identity.
What is the situation like for Tibetan children and teenagers who live in exile? What chances are there for the next generation, far away from their home countries, without any parents? Does a young person understand the meaning of cultural identity?

 

Religious principles such as compassion, tolerance and nonviolence? What kind of life models will be valid for them? What exactly is the Tibetan conflict to them? How important is art to them? Where do they find the feeling of security, love and trust in a foreign country? Can you learn how to become happy? Is there an alienation among the families because of life in exile? And can your own identity persist in the Western countries at all?

This is the very point from where the film starts to investigate, silhouetted against other documentary films on Tibetan topics. The film stages the facts without embellishment, documenting the renouncements and the difficulties that these children and teenagers have to take into account. Yet, they prove themselves, demonstrating their strength and their will. And they have got a target - their cultural independence.

Children who flee to North India from Tibet first come into the so called reception centre, the reception camp for all Tibetan refugees in Dharamsala. Here, they are supplied with everything they need, later on they are handed over to Tibetan Children’s Villages.
Most of the children have left Tibet on their own. The Children’s Villages are overstrained since hundreds of children from Tibet arrive here every year. Since the 1980ies, about 16,000 children have been accepted in the Tibetan Children’s Villages.

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Credits: Screenplay/ Director: Carola Mair

               Camera: Erika Michalke, Michael Eisenbach, David Hradetzky

               Editor: Erik Etschel

               Sound: Armin Lehner

               Voice: Lisa Fuchs, David Fuchs

               Music: Monika Stadler, Lama Tenzin Sangpo

               

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