'Sun Behind the Clouds' is 'audience favorite' at Palm Springs film festival
Phayul[Tuesday, January 19, 2010 12:14]

Dharamsala, January 19: ‘The Sun Behind the Clouds: Tibet's Struggle for Freedom,’ a documentary film by Tibetan and Indian filmmaker couple has been declared 'audience documentary favorite' at the prestigious 21st Annual Palm Springs International Film Festival which concluded in California yesterday.

Chinese state run news agency Xinhua reported on Jan 6 that two Chinese films had been pulled out of the festival in protest over the screening of ‘The Sun Behind the Clouds: Tibet's Struggle for Freedom.’ However, it later turned out that the Chinese movies had been withdrawn after festival organisers refused to bow under pressure from Chinese government representatives to cancel screenings of the film about Tibet’s freedom struggle.

“After meeting with representatives from the Chinese government regarding their request to cancel our screenings of ‘The Sun Behind The Clouds: Tibet’s Struggle for Freedom’, we have respectfully declined their request,” Screen Daily quoted festival director Darryl Macdonald as saying on Jan 7.

Last July Chinese government forced the withdrawal of three Chinese films from Melbourne International Film Festival in protest against the screening of ‘The 10 Conditions Of Love’, about Uyghur leader Rebiya Kadeer.

‘The Sun Behind the Clouds: Tibet's Struggle for Freedom’ is a film with “a uniquely Tibetan perspective on the trials and tribulations of the Dalai Lama and his people as they continue their struggle for freedom in the face of determined suppression by one of the world’s biggest and most powerful nations.”

The website of the filmmaker duo says they had an intimate access to the Tibetan leader His Holiness the Dalai Lama over the course of an eventful year, which included the 2008 protests in Tibet, the international response to it, the Beijing Olympics, and the breakdown in talks between the Tibetan envoys and the Chinese government.
source : www.phayul.com