On a Tightrope

Wed 12 Dec 2007 10.45pm
Film about children in a Chinese orphanage learning the ancient art of tightrope walking, highlighting the Xinjiang province's own balancing act as home to China's largest Muslim minority.

This documentary is part of the China Rising season.

Norwegian film maker Petr Lom travels to the far north-west of China ostensibly to make a film about the Uighurs – China's largest Muslim minority – and their tightrope walking tradition.

Given a chilling warning by the authorities as his crew enters the province – "the secret police will follow you for your own protection" – he goes on to make a remarkably warm film which is both metaphor for the plight of the persecuted Muslim minority of Xinjiang, and a story about how love can give an unloved child new confidence.

Xinjiang
In far northwest China, the province is home to eight million Uighurs, China's largest Muslim minority. China wants to assimilate the Uighurs. It severely restricts their political and religious freedom.

Tightrope walking
In the state orphanage in the town of Yengisar, three children are learning the traditional art of tightrope walking under former professional tightrope walker Mehmet Tursun.

But the sharp-dressed, moustachioed Tursun's talk is all about his own personal sacrifice to coach the orphans for nothing. He says tightrope walking is only for those who can endure hardship, and in training the children may have to be beaten up and cursed. The teachers at the orphanage suspect his motives – is he planning to make them perform and exploit them?

After a disagreement with the orphanage Tursun cuts his young pupils loose, claiming: "There is no support for Uighur traditions."