Production Notes

Windhorse tells the urgent, contemporary story of an aspiring Tibetan pop singer who wins favor with the Chinese government of occupied Tibet, but faces a crisis of conscience when her cousin, a Buddhist nun, is imprisoned and tortured for her religious beliefs.

The creation of Windhorse was a collaboration with the Tibetan exile community of Nepal. Political activist Thupten Tsering was co-director, and virtually all of the cast and most of the crew were Tibetans with no previous film experience. Because of potential political repercussions for Tibetans in China and Nepal, many of these people are identified in the credits by the phrase “Name Withheld.”

The film stars Tibetan-American singer Dadon as the aspiring pop star, and Jampa Kelsang as her brooding, Chinese-hating brother. The role of the Buddhist nun is played by a Tibetan actress whose name must be withheld for security reasons.

The screenplay, written by Tsering, Wagner, and co-producer Julia Elliott, is based on actual events and circumstances in contemporary Tibet—the repression of the Tibetan Buddhist religion by forbidding the display of photographs of Tibet's religious leader, the Dalai Lama; the denial of Tibetan political freedoms, such as free speech; and the imprisonment and torture of Tibetans for political reasons.

One of the unique aspects of the film is that several crucial scenes were shot clandestinely inside Chinese-occupied Tibet. In October of 1996, a small film crew of Americans and Tibetans, including two actors, entered Tibet and secretly filmed several scenes with a digital video camera.  The filmmakers returned to Kathmandu and shot the rest of the scenes in Nepal over a period of six weeks.

Even in Nepal, the exact nature of the film project had to be hidden from a Nepali government that routinely suppresses Tibetan political activities. Following the filming of a highly sensitive anti- Chinese demonstration scene on the last day of production, Nepali officials asked to see all footage shot during the project. Fortunately, the filmmakers had hand-carried the valuable cassettes out of the country a few days earlier.

Premiers of the highly political film at festivals in 1998 resulted in several controversies. The Chinese Embassy attempted to force the Washington, DC International Film Festival to cancel its screening of the film. The festival refused and the controversy exploded onto the pages of the Washington Post and New York Times. Later that year, the Hawaii International Film Festival, under pressure from the Chinese government, revoked an award nomination for Windhorse.

Because it so directly addresses the political and cultural concerns of the Tibetan people, and because it was the first film ever made in the Tibetan language, Windhorse has been enthusiastically embraced by the Tibetan community and the worldwide movement supporting His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the cause of Tibetan freedom.

China invaded Tibet in 1950 and forced the Dalai Lama into exile in 1959. Since then several hundred thousand Tibetans have been killed or have fled Chinese repression in their homeland.

In 1999, Windhorse was released in over 100 theaters in the United States by Shadow Distribution. It is available on VHS and DVD from New Yorker Films. Overseas distribution representation is by Media Luna. Windhorse is a production of High Plateau LLC and Paul Wagner Productions.

Synopsis

Three young Tibetans search for freedom and fulfillment amidst the clashing cultures of Chinese-occupied Tibet. Dolkar (played by Tibetan-American singer Dadon) is a talented disco singer who, with the help of her Chinese boyfriend, is on the verge of stardom. Her brother, Dorjee (played by Kathmandu musician and artist Jampa Kelsang), is a snooker-hall drunk whose eyes are opened by a young American tourist. Their cousin, Pema (played by an actress whose name must be withheld for security reasons), is a Buddhist nun who is imprisoned for her religious beliefs. When Pema is tortured in prison and then released into Dolkar and Dorjee’s custody, the two siblings make a most difficult decision: to defy the power of the communist regime.