From The San Francisco Chronicle

Windhorse Sees Tibet In All Its Complexity

"Windhorse" is a searing political drama, some of it filmed clandestinely in Lhasa, that rips the veils off Western idealism about Tibet.

Filming on the family apartment set

This amazing movie, starring Tibetan exiles who are not professional actors, was shot with a documentarian's eye for everyday details. In fact, director Paul Wagner, who won an Oscar for "The Stone Carvers," has only made documentaries until now.

"Windhorse" is fictional but steeped in grim reality about Chinese repression and the resolve by many Tibetans to keep their culture intact. The production, filmed on location in Tibet and Nepal, avoids the preachy tone that often comes with anything about Tibet these days. Yet "Windhorse" is anything but shy about its point of view.

The film, which opens today at the Castro, shows a different side of Tibet. Under Chinese rule, many Lhasans are opportunists. The city is filled with drunken lowlifes. There is overwhelming poverty (yet some glittering riches) in this smoggy, depressing place. What resistance remains, including Buddhist practice, is hidden.

The film's writers, Wagner, Tibetan exile Thupten Tsering and Harvard University divinity student Julia Elliott, have said that their story is "based on many true stories."

The drama centers on a female pop singer in Lhasa named Dolkar (played by Dadon), whose Chinese boyfriend arranges for her big break into stardom. A talent executive from the Beijing-run official record company is interested in signing her, as much for her propaganda value as for her talent.

But Dolkar's family members aren't so naive. Her brother, Dorjee (played with an edge by Jampa Kelsang), is an angry slacker whose alcoholism is partly fueled by his hatred for the Chinese. At home, Dolkar's grandmother (Nima Bhuti) refuses to hide her Buddhist symbols, a situation that might compromise Dolkar's recording career when the Chinese boyfriend pays a visit.

While caught up in the thrill of possible stardom, Dolkar faces a crisis of conscience when her cousin, a Buddhist nun named Pema (the actress withheld her name from credits because she has family in Lhasa), is arrested and brutalized for protesting a ban on putting up photographs of the Dalai Lama, spiritual leader of Tibet.

Meanwhile, Dorjee makes friends with a young American tourist, Amy (Taije Silverman), who encourages him to get involved in underground activities on behalf of the beaten nun.

Taking nothing away from beautifully filmed features like "Kundun" or "Seven Years in Tibet," "Windhorse" is a look at Tibet's spiritual core in the form of a punch to the stomach

Peter Stack
San Francisco Chronicle