Kundun
Short description
Kundun follows Tenzin Gyatso, a boy from a Tibetan farming family who is identified in 1937 as the reincarnation of the Buddha of Compassion and becomes the fourteenth Dalai Lama. Taken from his parents as a small child, he is raised by scholars at the Potala Palace and trained for the twin roles of spiritual and political leader. As he grows up, the Chinese invasion of Tibet forces him to weigh resistance against his commitment to non-violence, and he eventually leaves for exile in India.
Martin Scorsese directed the film, the twentieth of the thirty-eight features listed for him, arriving between Casino and Bringing Out the Dead. Melissa Mathison wrote the screenplay, and Barbara De Fina produced. Tenzin Thuthob Tsarong plays the adult Dalai Lama, with Gyurme Tethong and Tulku Jamyang Kunga Tenzin as his younger selves, alongside Tencho Gyalpo, Tsewang Migyur Khangsar and Robert Lin as Chairman Mao. Thirty-six cast members and fifty crew members are credited.
Made for about 28 million dollars, the film earned roughly 6 million worldwide, a small return on its budget. On IMDb it holds 7 out of 10 from around 32,000 votes, and on TMDB 6.8 out of 10 from a few hundred. A critics' rating of 7.8 out of 10 from 62 reviews places it above both audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- The roles of the Dalai Lama and members of his family were played by relatives of the Dalai Lama himself, who live in exile in Dharamsala (a city in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh) and abroad. Adult Dalai Lama was played by Tenzin Thuthob Tsarong, who is the Dalai Lama's great-nephew.
- The screenplay for the film was written by Melissa Mathison, Harrison Ford's ex-wife and the author of the famous Spielberg film "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial," and all the roles in the film were played by non-professional actors.
- After the film's release, Scorsese was placed on a "blacklist" of people banned from traveling to China.
- Due to the impossibility of filming in Tibet, the shooting was organized in Morocco.
- According to director Martin Scorsese, to film scenes with children, a toy house had to be built around the camera so that the children would look where the filmmakers needed them to.
- Cinematographer Roger Deakins believed that Martin Scorsese was hiring him for some documentary project; considering that he had to work with actors who were not actors in the literal sense, he perfectly understood when a scene was played as required and it was possible to move on to filming the next one.
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