WINDHORSE Review

WINDHORSE (1998) by Paul Wagner

Director Paul Wagner explains, in one of the extras on this DVD, that the idea for making this film came to him from a headline in the New York Times, which reported that the Chinese police had detained a western woman in Lhasa. Since his niece was traveling in the area, he tried to contact her in order to find out more about the event. As it turned out, she was the young woman who had been arrested. As he learned more about the situation from his niece and her boyfriend Thupten Tsering, it became clear that a film about what had been taking place might be a good way to help the Tibetan people in their plight. It is interesting to note that, at around the same time as Wagner made his film, two other features were being shot in Tibet: Kundun by Martin Scorsese and Seven Years in Tibet, with Brad Pitt.
Wagner’s film follows the lives of three contemporary Tibetan youths under the Chinese. As children, Dorje (Jampa Kelsag), his sister Dolkar (Dadon) and their cousin Pema witnessed the killing of their grandfather at the hands of the Chinese. Years later, their lives have taken different roads. Dolkar is aspiring to become a “Chinese” singer, Dorje has retired into himself and is disdainful of most that surrounds him, while cousin Pema is a Buddhist nun. When Pema is killed for protesting against the Chinese, the other two come to understand the importance of reacquainting themselves with, and preserving, their culture.
This film was shot digitally, with a consumer type camera that any tourist might carry, so as not to attract attention and endanger the lives of those Tibetans who agreed to collaborate in its making. Also as a precaution, the names of some of the “actors” (such as that of the woman who plays Pema) are not included so as to protect them.

Available through NETFLIX

MOUNTAIN PATROL Review

MOUNTAIN PATROL (KEKEXILI), 2005 by Lu Chuan

This haunting film is based on the story of an actual volunteer patrol of the Kekexili plateau, in Northwestern Tibet, that attempted to halt poachers from completely exterminating the Tibetan Antelope, or chiru. The patrol was active from 1993 to 1996. The pretext of the film is the visit of a journalist from Beijing, Ga Yu, who arrives to report on the lives and activities of the patrol. It soon becomes apparent that the film is a poignant portrayal of a dispossessed people’s attempt to conserve a part of their natural heritage. The volunteer patrollers work under difficult conditions and risk their lives for these animals. The beautiful landscape is also extremely treacherous and unforgiving, much like the dilemma that these men face. We, much like Ga Yu, the objective and detached observer from Beijing, even in our distance and comfort, cannot in the end but identify and suffer for these men.
Whether this is an allegory of Chinese actions in Tibet, and a suggested adjustement toward a region that they have taken under management, or merely a fictionalized “true-life adventure,” is up to the viewer to decided. Whatever the case, the real life results of the journalist’s work with the patrol resulted in the Chinese government’s establishment of a reserve in Kekexili, and the regeneration of the chiru population.

Available through NETFLIX or CITIZEN VIDEO, Fern Street, San Diego.