The production team of "A Year in Tibet", a five-episode documentary on Tibet that became a hit after it was shown on BBC in 2008, announced Thursday that the movie will "soon" be broadcast on CCTV and other Chinese TV channels.

Timed at 60 minutes per episode, the documentary is about the lives of eight ordinary Tibetans, including a lama, a village doctor, a restaurant owner and a rickshaw driver.

A poster of "A Year in Tibet," a five-episode documentary on Tibet. [CRIonline]

The documentary's director Sun Shuyun, a Chinese female, told Xinhua Thursday that the aim of the film is to help people understand the most ordinary Tibetan lives by faithfully telling their simple stories.

The film, first broadcast on BBC in March of 2008, drew worldwide attention for its detailed description of ordinary Tibetans. It has so far been shown on TV in more than 40 countries and regions.

The CCTV version of the documentary would be 48 minutes per episode and the date of broadcast has not yet been decided, Sun said.

She said that the main reason for the cut is to adjust to the Chinese mainland TV stations' broadcast schedules.

She told Xinhua that she is herself making the cuts in a way that makes the stories develop faster without affecting their structures.

Lhagpa Phuntshogs, director-general of the China Tibetology Research Center that sponsored the film's shooting, said at the press conference Thursday that the religious and cultural scenes in the film have reflected the joy and comfort the Tibetan people enjoy from their religion and culture.

(Xinhua News Agency July 17, 2009)