A film by Manuela Jödicke -
The West of China, including the region of Tibet is off-limits for our shoot. A long drive through the desert of Taklamakan leads us into the middle of China, where we encounter traditional societies. Finally, we cross the border to Myanmar - the former Burma - that used to be hermetically sealed and is slowly opening up now. Until this point, it had been unclear, whether we would receive permission for this.
In the boundless solitude of the Taklamakan desert an Uyghur camel breeder family watches Chinese television and the farEAST-team joins them.
In the Kunlun mountain range, the team is invited for dinner by a group of mechanics working on a high-tension power line. We are at four-thousand meters now, the highest point of the whole journey.
The province Yunnan is not quite as high up, only two and a half thousand meters..., but for more than a thousand years, it has been home to the Mosuo people. For all these centuries, the Mosuo have been ruled by a matriarchy. The mother, who is the chief of the clan, is the one who makes the decisions. China's best skateboarders live in the ancient royal city of Dali - at least according to the skaters there. Finally, the crossing of the border from China to Myanmar, the old Burma, is not as difficult as expected.
For the Burmese, the farEAST car convoy with the German license plates is an unusual sight. The farEAST-team in turn, is rather surprised by what the guests of a monastery near Pyin Oo Lwin are working on: they are crafting a giant hot-air balloon for a national competition of hot-air balloon builders. Their creations, equipped with hundreds of burning candles, will rise up into the night sky.
