Tharlo

Tharlo is an orphan who herds sheep in the village, and because of the ponytail he wears everyone simply calls him Ponytail; nobody remembers his given name any more. His memory is remarkable, and the one thing it does not hold is his own name. When he goes into town to have his photograph taken for an identity card, the young woman he meets at the barber’s shop turns his life in a different direction. He sells his own flock and the sheep the other villagers had entrusted to him, intending to go out into the world with her on the proceeds, and is cheated. By the end of a journey towards himself there is not much of that self left. Pema Tseden adapted his own short story, shot it in black and white, premiered it in the Horizons section at Venice in 2015 and won best adapted screenplay at the Golden Horse Awards that year.