Ballad from Tibet

Ten-year-old Thupten attends the blind school in Gyangzê in Tibet. In contrast to his classmates he can still see on one eye. That is why he has promised to take his friends Sonam, Droma and Kelsang to the distant Chinese city of Shenzhen, where the children want to appear in a famous television show to demonstrate that blind people can do more than just weave, massage, or constantly memorize texts at school. Droma wants to sing with her excellent voice, and the two boys are to accompany her on their traditional instruments. But the journey to Shenzhen is very long. Although the director of the show has promised to meet the children in Lhasa, it is up to them to find a way to get there. They set out in an old auto rickshaw equipped with a bag full of pears as “means of payment”. But then Thupten causes an accident. The children must continue on foot. And while their teacher Nymda and a TV assistant are looking for the runaways, the children are struggling along for thousands of miles through the mountains, a distance that is usually only covered by plane.