Foreign Spotlight: Dreaming Lhasa

It’s been almost fifty years since the People’s Liberation Army of China began their occupation of Tibet. It’s only in the past ten years, however, that a handful of films have surfaced concerning the resistance.  Seven Years in Tibet and Kundun are the most well known examples, but the problem with those films in lies in their occidental interpretation of an oriental culture.

Dreaming Lhasa is the first film to come from a Tibetan.  Thus, the Tibet the audience sees in this film is not full of grand, widescreen mountain vistas, intricate palaces or colorfully adorned monks.  Most of this film takes place in pool-hall bars, muddy streets, and cramped apartments with unreliable electricity.  The inhabitants of these locales feel alienated from both eastern and western influences alike.  How can one reconcile the west’s media control and the forced governmental control by an eastern superpower?  This is the question facing the alienated protagonist in the film, aptly named Karma.  Born in America, Karma travels to Dharamsala, the Dali Lama’s exiled city, to make a documentary about the political prisoners involved in the uprisings.  She is hoping both to expose the human rights violations that continue to occur and to reconnect with her native roots.  This is proving difficult considering her film-partner is a western obsessed, drop-out who has more then just a crush on his colleague.  It’s not until she meets Dhondup, an ex-monk and a refugee on a quest.  At the behest of his dieing mother he promised to bring a special charm box to a resistance-fighter who disappeared a long time ago.  She begins to slowly fall in love with this enigmatic mystic and together they set out on the journey to deliver the charm. 

Now although the premise of this film is certainly interesting and a movie-worthy topic, it’s unfortunate that the political profundity of the film is somewhat lost in the bland execution.  The performances are very flat, likely due to the use of first-time, non-professional actors.  The uninspired camera-work does nothing to elevate the film, or to even communicate the feelings of alienation and exile through imagery. Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam are mostly known for their documentaries on Tibet and it’s no stretch that they would want to move into the narrative form.  But one of the most important differences between narrative and documentary films is that in the narrative world, culturally relevant subject matter does not a good film make.  Richard Gere was an executive producer on this film and one would think he would have encouraged a more professional production.  It’s frustrating to watch the handling of visuals and performances not live up to the socially conscience, highly personal, plot.