Director Paul Wagner takes the heart of the story to Tibet, a country torn to shreds under the repressed rule of the Chinese. We already know what goes on behind closed doors but are reaffirmed by the brutality these humble Tibetans face through the lives of three children who grow up and each taking a different path in fighting the repressers in one form or another. I'm sure there will be plenty more tales coming out of Tibet.
7 Reviews
What an Amazing film
spiralgirl28 June 2005
I can't believe the other comment on this movie! I couldn't disagree more!
This is one of my favourite films of all time!
This movie was so gritty and emotional and gave me a real understanding of the oppression suffered by the Tibetan people on a daily basis.No other movie, in my view, has captured this so well.
Windhorse focuses on the current situation and the lives of young Tibetans. This illustrates that the suffering in Tibet is ongoing. Many other movies about Tibet focus on the military occupation in the 1950's, and many people may thus hold the incorrect opinion that problems in Tibet are just part of history.
This is a very very powerful film.It is made even more powerful by the fact that some footage was filmed in secret in Tibet and smuggled out - a very risky venture!
I give this movie 10 out of 10!
Free Tibet!!
This is one of my favourite films of all time!
This movie was so gritty and emotional and gave me a real understanding of the oppression suffered by the Tibetan people on a daily basis.No other movie, in my view, has captured this so well.
Windhorse focuses on the current situation and the lives of young Tibetans. This illustrates that the suffering in Tibet is ongoing. Many other movies about Tibet focus on the military occupation in the 1950's, and many people may thus hold the incorrect opinion that problems in Tibet are just part of history.
This is a very very powerful film.It is made even more powerful by the fact that some footage was filmed in secret in Tibet and smuggled out - a very risky venture!
I give this movie 10 out of 10!
Free Tibet!!
Been there, loved it.
ecblisa30 July 2009
I decided to write a review for this movie because the only one I found here was simply dead wrong. This movie makes an effort to tell some of the realities of life for Tibetans today (actually, ten years ago, but nothing much has changed), and to do so with a degree of realism seldom found. To do so, the producer decided to film scenes in Tibet surreptitiously. Was there any point to that? Indeed -- this is a movie that speaks to Tibetans worldwide, and having actual footage of their country in it means a lot. I have been in Tibet, and I can tell the difference between real footage of Lhasa and faked scenes.
This is not a movie that you watch on a lazy evening for entertainment. It is sad, sometimes brutal, and it left me with a terrible sense of hopelessness about the long-term fate of the Tibetans left in Tibet (although it also made me feel hopeful about Tibetan expatriates). But it is a movie that tells a truth that needs telling, especially today, when we have all forgotten what Communist China is really like.
This is not a movie that you watch on a lazy evening for entertainment. It is sad, sometimes brutal, and it left me with a terrible sense of hopelessness about the long-term fate of the Tibetans left in Tibet (although it also made me feel hopeful about Tibetan expatriates). But it is a movie that tells a truth that needs telling, especially today, when we have all forgotten what Communist China is really like.
small film but with great performers
Camillo-33 February 1999
The best film so far this year for me (now showing at filmfestival Rotterdam) If you now that film partly secretly, partly shot in Tibet and Nepal.It's much better filmed like the other films like Kundun and Seven years in Tibet. The story of a Tibetan pop star who collaborates with Chinese authorthies, but find herself in a crisis of conscienes when her cousin Pema, a Buddhist nun, is taken prisoner and tortured because of her religious faith.
If this weren't a guerilla production we wouldn't even be tempted to be kind to it.
Spleen7 March 2001
We know that parts of "Windhorse" were secretly filmed in Tibet. One has to wonder why. Most of the film consists of "Tibet" duplicated in some other country; since nothing of documentary interest happens in the real Tibetan scenes, these might well have been duplicated too - especially since the Tibetan footage is blurrier than, and clashes with, the non-Tibetan footage. (It's obvious that it was furtively shot with a concealed camera.) The sheer pointlessness of incorporating real Tibetan footage, and the sense we have that it was risky to shoot and riskier still to smuggle out of the country, gives this footage an eerie quality - like those Russian photographs of the surface of Venus. But it's not an eeriness that adds anything to the film.
I'm not able to check this, but grant for the sake of argument that "Windhorse" is (a) based on actual events, and (b) represents those actual events as accurately as was in the film-makers' power to represent them. Well and good. All the same it's a work of fiction, and fiction requires something more than fidelity to the real world and worthy motives in order to succeed. "Windhorse" has little story, flatly and poorly presented ... indeed, I needn't go on, since nobody could even mistake this film for a good work of fiction; it's so lacklustre, in fact, that the only danger is that someone will mistake it for a documentary.
Yes, the Chinese occupation of Tibet was and is unjustified. I felt as if I we were being asked to sit through something - not at all painful, but terribly earnest and dull - as penance for living in a world in which such a thing was allowed to happen. I would have preferred a documentary. A good one of those would have tried harder to be informative. It would have told me what it wanted me to think, or what it wanted me to do, and then given me reasons why I should think so or do so.
I'm not able to check this, but grant for the sake of argument that "Windhorse" is (a) based on actual events, and (b) represents those actual events as accurately as was in the film-makers' power to represent them. Well and good. All the same it's a work of fiction, and fiction requires something more than fidelity to the real world and worthy motives in order to succeed. "Windhorse" has little story, flatly and poorly presented ... indeed, I needn't go on, since nobody could even mistake this film for a good work of fiction; it's so lacklustre, in fact, that the only danger is that someone will mistake it for a documentary.
Yes, the Chinese occupation of Tibet was and is unjustified. I felt as if I we were being asked to sit through something - not at all painful, but terribly earnest and dull - as penance for living in a world in which such a thing was allowed to happen. I would have preferred a documentary. A good one of those would have tried harder to be informative. It would have told me what it wanted me to think, or what it wanted me to do, and then given me reasons why I should think so or do so.
thought-provoking
kbenko10 October 2001
Call me naive, but I liked this movie a lot. Thinking back on it, I suppose it was rather predictable. It made me think about historical and present imperialism (of China, the US, and Russia), what makes a minority, and the many forms of resistance to oppression, including non-resistance. Perhaps this movie interested me precisely because these are things I know little about and rarely think about. You gotta start somewhere.
Harshly revealing, a strong political statement.
nz man9 September 1999
After reading several external reviews for this film, I decided to see this film with three friends (age 35 - 50s). We agreed that it was well acted and filmed. However, we felt somewhat shattered afterwards. The brutal beating of the Buddhist nun is not pleasant. This is not a feel-good happy film. The Chinese are certainly the villains, and the story line is fairly predictable. If you are attracted to political films, or want to bolster your feelings about the terrible plight of the Tibetan people, or just want an insight into a slice of Tibetan life, then go see this film. It is a powerful film with a strong message.
One small criticism is that we did not believe that in 1997 a Chinese government-sponsered pop singer would be singing about Chairman Mao; Mao was given up long ago, right?
The film begins and ends with a lovely spiritual message about 'windhorse prayers'. This seems to be the only hope that the film gives for Tibet.
One small criticism is that we did not believe that in 1997 a Chinese government-sponsered pop singer would be singing about Chairman Mao; Mao was given up long ago, right?
The film begins and ends with a lovely spiritual message about 'windhorse prayers'. This seems to be the only hope that the film gives for Tibet.
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