Kundun

by Martin Scorsese

United States

Director: Martin Scorsese

Script: Melissa Mathison

Cinematographer: Roger Deakins

Editor: T. Schoonmaker

Music: Philip Glass

Cast: Ying Huang, Ning Liang, Richard Troxelle, Richard Cowan

Production: Erato Films, Ideale Audience

Distribution:
Les films du Losange
22 avenue Pierre 1er de Serbie
75116 Paris
France
Tel: 0033 1.44.43.87.10
Fax: 0033 1.49.52.06.40
Mail: [email protected]
www.filmsdulosange.fr

Year: 1997

35 mm, Colour, 135 min
OV with French Subtitles

In 1937, a two and a half-year-old child from a Tibetan modest family of peasants, is acknowledged as the fourteen reincarnation of the Buddha of Compassion and destined to become the spiritual and political leader of his country.

Kundun portrays the early years of his education as the Dalaï Lama, from his early age to the invasion of Tibet by Mao Zedong’s army in 1959. With the Dalaï Lama as adviser, the film recalls the adventure of a young man who became a leader within a few years and remained faithful to his principle of non violence to guide his people through one of the most tumultuous times of history.

“ I did not make a treatise about Catholicism nor about Buddhism, but I tried to portray a spiritual awakening. This is what fascinated me, the passage from childhood to adolescence, then to adulthood, the spiritual education of the Dalaï Lama, the incredible responsibility he inherited, all the faith, culture and philosophy he carried with him to his exile.”

To be a God child...