Cinema
Serfs
農奴
Li Jun · 1963
Synopsis
In Tibet in the fifties, Jampa, or Qiangba, a young serf, suffers from childhood the ill-treatment of a lord supported by the Buddhist clergy. The film follows his life, the servitude of the peasants of the plateau and their revolt; among the religious, some serve the masters and others take the side of the exploited, according to the Arsenal in Berlin. Tibetans, reports the writer Woeser, call the film by the name of its hero.
Context
The film was produced by the army in 1963, with Wangdu and Pema Yangchen in the leading roles. According to the Berlin film archive, it uses non-professional actors, which gives many scenes the look of a documentary. It was shown in 1964 at the third Afro-Asian festival in Jakarta. Regarded in China as a “revolutionary classic”, it was rebroadcast on Tibetan television for the “Serfs' Emancipation Day”, established in 2009; Woeser sees in it the first film to have rewritten the history of Tibet.
Who it is for
A film of an hour and a half, in Mandarin and Tibetan, openly political; it was shown in Rotterdam in 2025.
Prizes and reception
The 2025 Rotterdam programme describes it as an openly propagandist work, but one of galvanising force.
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