Pema Tseden's The Search: the making of a minor cinema

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis paper uses Deleuze and Guattari's concept of ‘minor’ to examine Pema Tseden's second full-length feature film, The Search. Expanding on Deleuze's definition of minor cinema, this paper shows how The Search, through various strategies and narrative devices, deconstructs the myth of a pre-existing Tibetan people, and builds upon individual and fragmented narratives to create a new collective subjectivity, thus opening the way for a new understanding of Tibet. This case study demonstrates how Pema Tseden's in-between position (between languages, cultures and geographical areas) permits him to develop a cinema that gives space for Tibetans to become, giving the viewer a rare insight into contemporary Tibet.