Old Dog (dir. Pema Tseden)
PEMA TSEDEN’S ACCLAIMED TIBETAN-LANGUAGE FEATURE
NEW YORK PREMIERE THEATRICAL RUN The Museum of Modern Art, May 15-20
After a successful festival run – including prizes at the Brooklyn Film Festival, Tokyo FILMeX, and Cinema Digital Seoul – Pema Tseden’s“spectacular” Tibetan feature OLD DOG (Lao Gou/Khyi Rgan) will make its New York theatrical premiere run at The Museum of Modern Art from May 15-20. (Leslie Felperin, Variety)
“A beautiful, highly effective and moving statement about a culture in danger of disappearing”, OLD DOG tells the story of a family on the Himalayan plains discovers that their dog is worth a fortune, but selling it comes at a terrible price. (James Mudge, Beyond Hollywood)
The Tibetan nomad mastiff is an exotic prize dog in China, fetching as much as millions of dollars from wealthy Chinese. When a young man notices several thefts of mastiffs from Tibetan farm families, he decides to sell his family’s dog before it is stolen and sold on the black market. His father, an aging Tibetan herder, is furious when he discovers their dog missing. When the father seeks to buy the dog back, it leads to a series of tragicomic events that threaten to tear the family apart, while showing the erosion of Tibetan culture under the pressures of contemporary society.
Directed by Pema Tseden (THE SILENT HOLY STONES, THE SEARCH), “the most important independent Tibetan filmmaker now working in China”, OLD DOG is both a humorous and tragic allegory and a sober depiction of life among the impoverished rural Tibetan community. (Shelly Kraicer)
The MoMA run is included in the museum’s Chinese Realities/Documentary Visions series, a wide-ranging survey of the “reality aesthetic” that has developed in China over the past two decades, which runs May 8-June 1. One of the most comprehensive programs of recent Chinese cinema to occur in North America, the series includes more than 30 films, among them five other titles from the dGenerate Films Collection at Icarus Films: DISORDER, OXHIDE II, SAN YUAN LI, TAPE, and THOUGH I AM GONE.
“Shows Tibet through Tibetan eyes, as it is lived and experienced by ordinary people.” – The Culture Trip
“A bold, uncompromising Tibetan tale.” – Indiewire
“Lush, imbued with metaphor.” – Time Out Shanghai
For screeners, images, or press info about the MoMA run and Chinese Realities/Documentary Visions, contact: Meg Montgoris, Publicist, Department of Communications at The Museum of Modern Art. Meg_Montgoris[at]moma.org/212-708-9757.
For more information about OLD DOG and the dGenerate Films Collection at Icarus Films, contact: Colin Beckett, Director of Marketing & Publicity at Icarus Films:colin[at]icarusfilms.com/718-488-8900
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