Kundun is a
film made around
1996 by
Martin Scorsese, featuring no
famous actors. If you know that Kundun is a name (meaning '
The Presence' for the
Dalai Lama ('
Ocean of Knowledge') then you will have guessed the
subject of the
film correctly.
There is no
storyline to the
film other than the chronicaling of the period from when the
fourteenth
Dalai Lama was 'discovered' (c.
1940) until when he travels -
exiled - into
India (
1959).
I think that the
film first focuses on showing the interesting features of the
Tibetan
life and
culture (then) and the
Buddhist religion.
The 'main
event' then occurs:
Revolution in
China and the '
motherland's' reclaiming/
invasion of
Tibet. An interesting feature, I suppose because he is such a devastatingly
infamous '
real person' (
TM), is having
Chairman Mao as an actual
character.
From here the
film shows the
horror of the situation for the
Tibetans and the
sad dilema for Kundun.
Pretty images with effective, '
clever', occaisionally odd,
film techniques seem to be used throughout. The mix of these '
surreal' sections and the depressingly '
real'
story is interesting and makes a
good film, I think. No additional off-
topic storyline is required to make a complete
movie.
The
Film could also, perhaps, be seen as a study of
Buddhism and so the
Dalai Lama's problems. He seems to acknowledge at points that
Tibet is no
paradise politically - saying, as the
Chinese invade, something along the lines of 'It is a shame, as things were going to change around here soon anyway' and stating that he felt
Buddhism had some things in common with
Socialism. Personally I don't think the
leader seriously had any political
plans, and since the time he has not made political
points further that being against
China (for
obvious reasons). However, the invasion forces
Tibet,
Buddhism and the
Dalai Lama to be exposed to the '
modern world', which seems a
Great Shame!
The Dalai Lama has said that if he does return to Tibet it will be only as a spiritual leader, not political, surely suggesting that he quite fancies a Democracy.