Tom Peosay's documentary, "Tibet: Cry of the Snow Lion" is a call to the battle for nonviolence.
Tibet: Cry of the Snow Lion
Production Co.: Earthworks Film, Inc., Zambuling Pictures, Inc.
Director: Tom Peosay
100 mins.
Director Tom Peosay's documentary, Tibet: Cry of the Snow Lion, is a memorable and informative acount of the half-century-long occupation of Tibet by China. Beautifully shot with footage gathered over ten years, with stunning images of the Tibetan plateau and the ruined Buddhist monasteries, the film includes accounts from Robert Ford, one of the few people to have lived in Pre-Chinese Tibet, interviews with western scholars, and personal testimony from some of the monks and nuns that survived the Chinese crackdown on Tibetan religion and culture.
While the film does gloss over the Chinese government's rationale for the occupation, stating that Tibet, far from being a utopian society, had been a feudalistic society plagued by poverty, it is clear from the start that this is a film meant to inspire outrage. The description and images of the 1987 Lhasa demonstrations, described by two American tourists who witnessed the protests and brutal crackdown that ensued, were particularly wrenching. As Chinese officials descended upon fleeing monks and terrified villagers with guns and clubs, a police station holding the captured Buddhist monks suddenly caught on fire. Jampa Tenzin, a monk, ran into the flames to help free the prisoners. Merging from the building completely seared, with his charred flesh hanging like rags off of his limbs, Tenzin was hoisted on the arms of his fellow protesters and continued to demonstrate. Tenzin was later captured by the Chinese and tortured.
Perhaps most memorable is the sentiment echoed throughout the film by the monks and nuns at the forefront of the Tibetan freedom movement and voiced by Gendun Rinchen, a former political prisoner: "The worst thing for a Tibetan under the Chinese rule is that one cannot say that I am a Tibetan, as simple as this."
For a movie that is supposed to represent the cry of the Snow Lion, the mythical beast emblazoned on the Tibetan flag, this film sure has quite a lot of Western faces telling us what the Tibetans want and don't want. Reinforcing this is the inevitable celebrity narration, this time perpetrated by Martin Sheen, along with voiceovers by Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins. Although the starpower is obviously a strong selling point for an independent film, I would have appreciated a narration from an actual Tibetan person, or a person somehow connected to Tibet in a more deeply spiritual way. The voice of a Hollywood actor narrating these events is somewhat incongruous next to the horrifying accounts of torture and suffering relayed by the Tibetans.
Still, the film's starpower is in keeping with its purpose - to educate people and move them to action on the Tibetan freedom issue. This film has a lot to say, and although it is clearly partisan, it is informative and engrossing.
While Peosay does include typical protocol statements by PRC officials reiterating the official Party line - that Tibet was not an independent country before the Chinese invasion, that Tibet is better off financially under China, and that progress in human rights has been made, these statements sound abbreviated and absurd in the context of the film, leaving you curious to learn more.
While none can argue that the Chinese have not commited atrocities against Tibetans, using torture and intimidation to suppress their religion and culture, Peosays' documentary leaves you wanting to hear more of the other side of the story, if only for the sake of understanding it in order to debunk it. Alternately horrifying, inexpressibly sad and inspiring, this film is a powerful work, but I wonder if its audience might sadly be limited to those who are already inclined to agree with it.
Hopefully, people who have "Free Tibet" bumper stickers plastered over the backs of their Toyota Prius's will not be the only ones who end up seeing this film. Will starpower draw crowds to this film? Perhaps, but the horrifying footage and testimony from monks and nuns speak for itself. Anyone who is not moved to tears by the footage of the monk Jampa Tenzin riding on the shoulders of his fellow Tibetans, his skin melting off of his charred flesh as he demonstrates for the freedom of his people, certainly won't be moved by Martin Sheen's outrage on his behalf.
For more information about the film and screening dates, visit:
www.cryofthesnowlion.com (http: //www.cryofthesnowlion.com).