Photo courtesy of the Sky Films

Taipei, Sept. 22 (CNA) " Lokah Laqi" (只要我長大), a film about three children growing up in a secluded indigenous tribal village, will represent Taiwan to vie for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language nomination, the Ministry of Culture announced on Thursday.

In the film, the three children are very optimistic, energetic and playful; yet, they are also troubled by their own family issues. Their teacher opened an after school session to help them with their schoolwork.

The children find the teacher has a beautiful voice, but never sings. One day, they discover a cassette tape of their teacher's recording and are amazed by her singing. They decide to take this tape to Taipei.

Upon learning that her film had been selected to represent Taiwan, the film's director Laha Mebow (陳潔瑤), who is from the indigenous Atayal tribe, one of the 16 officially recognized tribes in Taiwan, said she was very honored and hoped "the subject of indigenous people can be seen by the world - a little dream of mine."

The 41-year-old director expressed appreciation to the young performers in the film, noting that indigenous children are talented, which has made the movie captivating.

Laha Mebow said that she cherished the recognition of "Lokah Laqi," but that "just finishing the film and letting others see it was already gratifying."

Actress Albee Huang (黃瀞怡), who plays the teacher of the three children in the film, said she had hoped to let the world see Taiwan's indigenous people when working on the film, and now this was "one step forward" in achieving that goal and she felt proud and honored.

"Lokah Laqi" is Laha Mebow's second film. Her first production "Finding Sayun" (不一樣的月光 : 尋找沙韻》was released in 2011. It depicted a girl named Sayun, who was the most beautiful girl in her class, but who tragically fell to her death in a stream while carrying her Japanese teacher's belongings during World War II.

(By Wang Ching-yi and Lilian Wu)
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