To a Hidden Land

A young film student follows in the footsteps of her intrepid late father to shoot her first documentary about a trip to a glacier in far-flung Tibet, Xu Fan reports.

When Rao Zijun was recruited to direct the documentary Hidden Land in Northern Tibet, she was still a fourth-grade student majoring in movie and television editing at Beijing's Central Academy of Drama.

Alongside the other 47 crew members, Rao, who was then just 21 years old, trekked nearly 3,500 kilometers deep into the no man's land of Tibet autonomous region's Qiangtang, China's largest nature reserve, in December 2016. With its lakes, deserts and glaciers, the area is a haven for some rare species, such as the Tibetan antelope, the wild yak and the Tibetan brown bear.

The 90-minute documentary, which is centered on the Purog Kangri Glacier, located around 560 kilometers from Nagchu town in the Tibet autonomous region, will open across Chinese mainland theaters on Aug 31, and will be released in selected European cinemas in late September.

Covering an area of over 400 square kilometers, Purog Kangri is the third largest glacier in the world.

Unlike most nature-themed documentaries featuring natural scenery and wildlife, Hidden Land in Northern Tibet is more of a soul-searching exploration about the people who shot the film.