Tibet - Tor zum Himmel

Directed by Jaroslav Poncar

“If Tibet had not existed, probably no human imagination would have sufficed to invent something equally strange.” This is how English writer John Keay characterizes the still-mysterious land on the "Roof of the World." Photographer and author Dr. Jaroslav Poncar, together with filmmaker Wolfgang Kohl, shot this extraordinary documentary there in the late 1990s. They traced the routes leading to the sources of the Indus River. In this 90-minute documentary, they present a land in breathtaking images—one that no longer exists in the same form today. They filmed in locations that, if at all accessible, remain extremely difficult for tourists to reach. The shoot lasted several weeks and was marked by immense hardships for the film crew, carried out under extremely challenging climatic and logistical conditions. The result is an impressive cinematic work that was awarded at the Mountain Film Festival in Trento, Italy. Music composed by Michael Ranta.