> Shame! Shame! Shame on China! -- Movie Windhorse Trailer
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pv3GA2HvO9k
>
> This is the scene from the movie Windhorse in which two Buddhist nuns
> protest against the Chinese government. What you see here is very much
> like what has actually happened in Tibet recently. See windhorsemovie.com
>
> http://windhorsemovie.com/trailer/
>
> http://windhorsemovie.com/aboutTibet/politics.php
>
> http://windhorsemovie.com/aboutTibet/reality.php
>
> windhorse
>
> Buddhist nuns in prayer
> Tibetan Reality Becomes a Movie
>
> by screen writer and co-producer Julia Elliott
>
> In the summer of 1995, when my uncle approached us about working with
> him on a film about the political situation in Tibet, Thupten Tsering
> and I jumped at the chance. For several years, Thupten had been using a
> friend's video camera to interview Tibetans who had recently escaped
> over the Himalayas into Nepal. He had a wealth of stories that he was
> eager to share with westerners and Tibetans alike. We wanted the script
> to reflect these remarkable--and often sad and disturbing--experiences
> as much as possible.
>
> Thupten had been particularly struck by what he heard from Tibetans his
> age, those in their late twenties and early thirties. Their stories were
> grim. There were few jobs for young Tibetans in the mid-1990s, and
> unemployment drove many to drinking, prostitution, and a general feeling
> of hopelessness. From these stories, we sketched the character of
> Dorjee, the brother in the film. Dorjee's constant "snooker" (pool)
> playing, hanging out in brothels, and intense feelings of anger and
> frustration are based directly on what Thupten heard and saw from young
> Tibetans living in Tibet.
>
> Dorjee's activist friend, Lobsang, is also drawn from young Tibetans we
> knew whose response to the Chinese occupation is underground resistance
> instead of defeat. Just as Lobsang is limited to acts of protest like
> putting up anti-Chinese posters and arranging for information to be
> smuggled out to the West, Tibetan activists are restricted in their
> political expression by severely repressive Chinese policies.
>
> We tried to give an example of how watchful the Chinese police are
> through Dorjee and Dolkar's neighbor, the monk, who conveniently shows
> up outside their home at tense moments and, eventually, turns in
> evidence against them to the "Public Security Bureau." We got the idea
> for the monk from an incident that happened to Paul and Thupten on their
> scouting trip to Lhasa. They were shooting video at night outside of the
> Jokhang, Lhasa's holiest temple, when an elderly monk walked past them
> and pulled something from under his robes that flashed. The next day,
> one of Thupten's friends came to their hotel to report that a photograph
> of the two of them, videotaping at night outside the Jokhang temple, was
> posted on a board at the Public Security Bureau.
>
> Chinese culture has taken over Tibet, particularly in the capitol,
> Lhasa. Nowhere is this more obvious than at the numerous discos where
> young Tibetans are drawn to dance and sing karaoke. We were determined
> that Tibet's most famous singer, Dadon, would play the role of Dolkar,
> the sister who is lured by the excitement of Lhasa's Chinese nightlife.
> When we met Dadon, however, we realized that her own life was more
> interesting and complex than we had known.
> windhorse
>
> His Holiness, the Dalai Lama
>
> Dadon had made it as a successful pop star in Tibet, but after several
> events, including witnessing the Tiananmen Square Protests, she realized
> she could no longer work for the Chinese media. She escaped Tibet, and
> has been traveling the world to promote the Tibetan cause through her
> beautiful singing. Dadon's story inspired us to have Dolkar rise to
> success as a pop star, only to give it up after witnessing the brutality
> of the Chinese government.
>
> Perhaps the most moving interviews Thupten conducted were those with
> several Buddhist nuns. They had escaped from Tibet after years spent in
> prisons as punishment for protesting the Chinese occupation. Like Pema,
> Dorjee and Dolkar's cousin who enters the nunnery, monks and nuns in
> Tibet are more likely to protest the Chinese government because they do
> not have the day-to-day concerns and responsibilities of laypeople.
>
> One of the things the nuns shared with Thupten were the freedom songs
> they composed in prison. These songs gave them courage and strength to
> endure their sentences--and often resulted in harsher treatment by their
> guards. When Pema sings to her friend, Dolma, in prison, she is singing
> one of those freedom songs Thupten recorded from the nuns. The angry
> reaction of the guards is based on stories these nuns told us of their
> torture. Electric shock with cattle prods, rape, and severe beatings
> were common forms of torture used on these nuns. The fact that the
> guards are largely Tibetan is also based on what former prisoners
> reported to Thupten.
>
> The character of Amy, the American girl Dorjee befriends, was loosely
> based on my experience as a student traveling in Tibet. After completing
> a year studying Tibetan language, culture, and religion in Nepal, I
> traveled to Lhasa in 1993 with a group of friends. On one of our days
> touring around the city, we happened to come across a group of Tibetans
> marching toward the center of town, the Bharkor, chanting anti-Chinese
> slogans. We took pictures as the protest grew. After a short while,
> police descended on the crowd, shooting off tear gas and making arrests.
> We returned to our hotel, where we were met by policemen who detained
> us, confiscated our film, forced us to write an "apology statement," and
> deported us.
>
> Although I did not get as closely involved with a Tibetan family as Amy
> does in the film, I did learn, as she does, how incredibly difficult it
> is to get information from Tibet out to the world. Most importantly, my
> experience gave me a greater understanding of how oppressive the
> political situation is for ordinary Tibetans.
>
> While Thupten, Paul and I were working on the script, the Chinese
> government issued a ban on photographs of the Dalai Lama--something they
> periodically do. This event sparked a rash of protests among Buddhist
> monks and nuns in various places in Tibet. We knew we had to work this
> development into the script, and it became the catalyst that sets in
> motion the events that happen in the film.
>
> It is often difficult for Westerners to understand how a photograph
> could have such symbolic value, but the Dalai Lama is the center of
> Tibetan political and spiritual life. Tibetans believe him to be the
> incarnation of the Buddhist god of compassion, Chenrezig. For that
> reason, even his photograph is believed to have spiritual powers. But
> apart from his religious significance, the Dalai Lama is a powerful
> leader. By spreading his teachings of peace throughout the world (he
> receivd the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989), he has brought attention to the
> plight of Tibetans and occasional political pressure to bear upon China.
> Momo, the grandmother in the film, demonstrates the Tibetans' reverence
> for the Dalai Lama in her refusal to put away his photograph, as does
> the nun Tsering, who is arrested at Pema's nunnery for possessing a
> photograph.
>
> The Chinese government is extremely threatened by the allegiance the
> Dalai Lama still inspires among Tibetans. Criminalizing the display of
> his photographs may seem like a small action, but it is a powerful
> symbol of the complete control the Chinese government has over Tibetan
> political and spiritual life.
>
> The last scene of the film follows Dorjee and Dolkar as they escape over
> the mountains into Nepal--and freedom. We based their journey on the
> stories of young Tibetans who had recently escaped. It is a journey that
> thousands of Tibetans undertake every year in order to be free from the
> daily oppression of Chinese occupation.
>
>  2006 Paul Wagner Productions    |