Kids on the Silk Road 3 - Poonam's Fortune

Poonam (14) happily breaks the news of her imminent marriage during a break at her school in Nepal. As her friends lose themselves in stories about horrible marriages of other girls, it dawns on Poonam that she has no clue about her future husband and in-­‐laws. All she knows is that in few days she’ll be moving to their house and must abide by their rules. How will she secure her position in her new family? She cries during the wedding when she leaves her mother. She fulfills the dreams of her and the husbands families when she 9 months later delivers a baby boy. Luckily in her case she falls in love with her husband who turns out to be a great boyfriend and in this relationship she can still be the teenage girl Poonam.

"Kids on the Silk Road" is a documentary series for the 10-12 year olds about their peers in countries along the Silk Road. The ancient Silk Road countries in Central - and South East Asia life of children is fascinating and dramatic. Exotic stories unfold on a backdrop of social necessity. The children are compelled to make existential choices when their ambition or passion encounters resistance.
We are looking for those children who show courage in this encounter. We hope they prevail in their attempt to create a productive change for themselves. But first and foremost we are looking for potential - resources and the will to go forward.
With recognizable themes - friendship, love, wishes for the future, parental ambitions - which is part of every child's life, we hope to eliminate geographical and cultural gaps between our main characters and their Danish audience.

Through 5 documentary shorts we get an understanding of how 5 children grow up in 5 different countries along the ancient silk route. Each story is told through the child’s perspective. Each little individual fate and life has something to overcome.
The Silk Road was an ancient network of trade routes that were central to cultural interaction connecting the East and West. It created curiosity among cultures, for example with tea and silk from China suddenly sold in Venice. The trading may be a thing of the past, but the culture is still there… We chose the Silk Road because we want to show the kids how colorful the world is and to create understanding and curiosity of the different cultures. What if we all had less prejudice and more curiosity? Would the world be more colorful and less hierarchical? Would there be more empathy? Could we in the West try to learn from other cultures?

A Series of 5 Documentaries by Director Jens Pedersen.