Kundun by Martin Scorcese

Plot Summary forKundun (1997) More at IMDbPro »

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The Tibetans refer to the Dalai Lama as 'Kundun', which means 'The Presence'. He was forced to escape from his native home, Tibet, when communist China invaded and enforced an oppressive regime upon the peaceful nation of Tibet. The Dalai Lama escaped to India in 1959 and has been living in exile in Dharamsala ever since. Written by Deki
In 1937, in a remote area of Tibet close to the Chinese border, a two year old child is identified as the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama, the compassionate Buddha. Two years later, the child is brought to Lhasa where he is schooled as a monk and as head of state amidst the color and pageantry of Tibetan culture. The film follows him into adulthood: when he is 14, the Chinese invade Tibet and he is forced into a shaky coalition government; he travels to China to meet with a cynical Mao; and, finally, in 1959, ill and under siege, he flees to India. Throughout, he has visions of his people's slaughter under Chinese rule. Written by {jhailey@hotmail.com}
http://www.imdb.com/keyword/tibet/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119485/"Compassion in Exile" is moving in many ways. First, it shows the endearing humaneness of the Dalai Lama and his infectious laughter. Secondly, it shows genuine historical footage of China's violent repression of the 1959's uprising in Tibet. It also shows the policy of relentless demolition of almost 6,000 Tibetan monasteries. But what moves one to tears are the recollections by Tibetans who made to Dharamsala in India. It was not possible for me to watch children, nuns, monks, and many other Tibetans describing what they went through without been left with a lump in throat. One emotional climax comes when the Dalai Lama's younger sister speaks. It really breaks one's heart to hear her saying: "When I remember how Tibet was (before the invasion) ... It was so beautiful." China's economic might may rule the day and make cowards of the powerful nations of the world. But the conscience of the world cannot forget Tibet and its people. If we allow this profoundly ancient and wise culture to be wiped out from the face of the earth, we would have lost an essential part of our own selves. Compassion is not an ideology; it is what keeps humanity together. Speak for Tibet and help to save the world from the nightmare of power-seeking and war mongering.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0420541/
Trivia forCe qu'il reste de nous (2004) More at IMDbPro »

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This documentary was shot secretly inside Tibet between 1996 and 2004, without the knowledge of Chinese authorities.
For humanitarian reasons and to help protect the Tibetans who courageously participated in the film, the Directors insisted that security measures be part of the distribution plan. The National Film Board of Canada (NFB), international distributor of the film, initially agreed with this plan.
Worldwide, each moviegoer attending a screening was to be searched by security guards before entering the theater, in order to prevent anyone with any type of camera to take pictures of the faces appearing in the film. The release of such portraits could endanger the life of the Tibetans because the Chinese government might consider the participants as political troublemakers, and eventually put them in jail, torture or even kill them.
In August 2008, at the urging of some of the film's participants and members of the Tibetan Diaspora, the filmmakers have decided to make the film available to the widest possible audience, on the eve of the Summer Olympics in Beijing. Two days before its DVD release, it has been shown on the Canadian French language CBC television network as a world TV premiere.



Plot Summary forFate of the Lhapa (2007) More at IMDbPro »

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Fate of the Lhapa is a feature-length documentary about the last three Tibetan shamans living in a Tibetan refugee camp in Nepal. Each lhapa requested that their story be filmed. Their fear was that the next heir might not appear until after their own deaths. Subsequently, with no lhapa alive to mentor the children, the documentary would be used to transmit the knowledge to the next generation. Their tales of nomadic childhoods, shamanic callings and apprenticeships, cosmologies of disease and treatments, and of their flight from Tibet during the Chinese occupation in the late 1950s is be juxtaposed with images of present-day life in the camp, current healing practices and shared concerns of the future and the fate of their tradition. Written by Sarah C. Sifers
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1042883/
http://www.imdb.com/keyword/dalai-lama/
Kundun
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Kundun
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Directed by
Martin Scorsese
Produced by
Barbara De Fina
Written by
Melissa Mathison
Music by
Philip Glass
Cinematography
Roger Deakins
Distributed by
Touchstone Pictures (USA)
Release date(s)
1997
Running time
134 min
Language
English, Tibetan, Mandarin
Budget
$28,000,000[1]
Gross revenue
$5.68 million (U.S.)[1]
Kundun is a 1997 film written by Melissa Mathison and directed by Martin Scorsese. It is based on the life and writings of the Dalai Lama, the exiled political and spiritual leader of Tibet. Tenzin Thuthob Tsarong, a grand nephew of the Dalai Lama, stars as the adult Dalai Lama.
"Kundun" (སྐུ་མདུན་ Wylie: Sku-mdun in Tibetan), meaning "presence", is a title by which the Dalai Lama is addressed. Kundun was released only a few months after Seven Years in Tibet, sharing the latter's location and its depiction of the Dalai Lama at several stages of his youth, though Kundun covers a period three times longer. (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kundun)

The film — "made of episodes, not a plot"[2] — has a straightforward chronology with events spanning from 1937 to 1959.[3]; the setting is Tibet, except for brief sequences in China and India. It begins with the search for the 14th mindstream emanation of the Dalai Lama. Following a vision by Reting Rinpoche (the regent of Tibet) several lamas disguised as servants discover the location of a promising candidate: a child born to a poor farming family in the province of Amdo, near the Chinese border.
These and other lamas administer a test to the child in which he must select from various objects the ones that belonged to the previous Dalai Lama. The child passes the test; he and his family are brought to Potala Palace in Lhasa, where he will be installed as Dalai Lama when he comes of age.
During the journey, the child becomes homesick and frightened, but he is comforted by Reting, who tells him the story of the first Dalai Lama — whom the lamas referred to as "Kundun". As the film progresses, the boy matures both in age and learning. Following a brief power struggle in which Reting is imprisoned and dies, the Dalai Lama begins taking a more active role in governance and religious leadership.
Meanwhile, the Chinese Communists, recently victorious in their revolution, are proclaiming Tibet to be a traditional part of Imperial China and express their desire to re-incorporate it with the newly formed People's Republic of China. Eventually, despite Tibet's pleas to the United Nations and the United States for intervention, Chinese Communist forces invade Tibet. The Chinese are initially helpful, but when the Tibetans resist Communism reorganization and re-education of their society, the Chinese become oppressive in the eyes of many.
Following a series of atrocities suffered by his people, the Dalai Lama resolves to meet with Chairman Mao Zedong in Beijing. During their face-to-face meeting on the final day of the Dalai Lama's visit, Mao makes clear his view that "religion is poison" and that the Tibetans are "poisoned and inferior" because of it. Upon his return to Tibet, the Dalai Lama learns of more horrors perpetrated against his people, who have by now repudiated their treaty with China and begun guerrilla action against the Chinese. After the Chinese make clear their intention to kill him, the Dalai Lama is convinced by his family and his Lord Chamberlain to flee to India.
After consulting the oracle about the proper escape route, the Dalai Lama and his staff put on disguises and slip out of Lhasa under cover of darkness. During an arduous journey, throughout which they are pursued by the Chinese, the Dalai Lama becomes very ill and experiences several visions of the past and future. The group eventually makes it to a small mountain pass on the Indian border. As the Dalai Lama walks to the guard post, an Indian guard approaches him, salutes, and inquires: "May I ask, are you
the Lord Buddha?" The Dalai Lama replies with the film's final line: "I think that I am a reflection, like the moon on water. When you see me, and I try to be a good man, you see yourself."
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