By LAWRENCE VAN GELDER
New York Times, April 30, 1999

Earnest and committed, "Windhorse" dramatizes the plight of the Tibetan
people under Chinese occupation and repression by means of the story of
the disintegration of a single family.

The film's claim to attention is enhanced not only by its focus on yet
one more example of the 20th century's bloody skein of ethnic
obliteration and the particular matter of China's attitude toward human
rights but also by the clandestine manner in which parts of "Windhorse"
itself were made.

By necessity, according to the filmmakers, portions of "Windhorse,"
which tells of murder, official brutality, cultural and religious
subjugation, exile and efforts to dilute the Tibetan populace through
intermarriage, were filmed within Tibet as if by tourists making home
movies.

The credits for "Windhorse," in Tibetan and Chinese with English
subtitles, are notable for the actors and crew members whose names are
withheld for fear of reprisals.

It is clearly a film with a cause, and it tells its story in a
straightforward manner beginning with a brief historical lesson
referring to the invasion by China in 1959, the destruction of 6,000
Buddhist monasteries and a million deaths attributed to Chinese
aggression.

Produced, directed and co-written by Paul Wagner, whose credits include
the Academy Award-winning documentary "The Stone Carvers," "Windhorse"
is also notable for its exotic locales, including the Himalayas and the
streets of Lhasa, the Tibetan capital.

Its primary characters are a brother, sister and cousin, seen first as
playful children in a rural village, where the prayerful grandfather of
the brother and sister is executed by the Chinese in 1979 for espousing
Tibetan freedom.

The film then vaults across 18 years to Lhasa. The brother, Dorjee
(Jampa Kelsang), and sister, Dolkar (Dadon), are still living with their
parents and grandmother, but these children have followed different
paths, as has their cousin, Pema, whose actual name has been withheld.

The sullen, angry Dorjee, who hates the Chinese, has no job, drinks
heavily and hangs out in pool halls and brothels. Dolkar, on the other
hand, is fluent in Chinese, sings regularly and remuneratively in a
disco and has a Chinese boyfriend, Duan-ping (Richard Chang), an
up-and-coming television producer who is eager to promote her career.
Pema has entered a Buddhist nunnery.

Everyone's life changes after the Chinese forbid the display of images
of the exiled Dalai Lama. Pema, who has seen one of the other nuns
dragged off by the authorities after they find one of the banned
pictures, cries out publicly for Tibetan freedom during a visit to a
marketplace in Lhasa and is arrested and assaulted to the point of
death.

Fearful that she will die in their custody, the authorities release her
to the family of Dolkar and Dorjee. As a result, Dolkar rethinks her
commitment to sing Chinese propaganda on a television broadcast to China
and Dorjee decides to join the resistance by enlisting Amy (Taije
Silverman), a visiting American, in videotaping Pema's story so her
testimony can be smuggled out of Tibet. The Chinese authorities are not
blind to their activities.

The film takes its title from prayer flags and scraps of paper in
mountain passes, the windhorses on whose backs Tibetans send prayers to
the spirits who look after them. Among these prayers are prayers for
freedom.

PRODUCTION NOTES

WINDHORSE

Directed by Paul Wagner; written (in Tibetan and Mandarin, with English
subtitles) by Julia Elliot, Thupten Tsering and Wagner; director of
photography, Steven Schecter; edited by Wagner and Tony Black; music by
Tommy Hayes, Sam Chapin, John Dana and Dadon; produced by Wagner and Ms.
Elliot; released by Shadow Distribution. The movie has opened in New
York City. Running time: 97 minutes. This film is not rated.

WITH: Dadon (Dolkar), Tenzin Pema (Young Dolkar), Pasang Dolma (Young
Pema), Jampa Kelsang (Dorjee), Richard Chang (Duan-ping), Taije
Silverman (Amy) and Deepak Tserin (Young Dorjee). The producers withheld
the names of some actors "for fear of endangering their lives," a
representative said.