Rather than offer more information or documentation, the film uses a fictional framework to explore the human-scale effects of exile on those Tibetans who've escaped their homeland.
Dreaming Lhasa (2007)
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Reviews Counted:17
Fresh:7
Rotten:10
Average Rating:5/10
Synopsis: A journey of self-discovery begins for a Tibetan-American filmmaker named Karma when she journeys to northern India to make a documentary. Her subject: escaped political prisoners from Tibet. But,... A journey of self-discovery begins for a Tibetan-American filmmaker named Karma when she journeys to northern India to make a documentary. Her subject: escaped political prisoners from Tibet. But, as she joins an ex-monk on a very personal quest, Karma finds she must confront her own fractured past. [More]
Starring: Tenzin Chokyi Gyatso, Tenzin Jigme, Jampa Kalsang
Starring: Tenzin Chokyi Gyatso, Tenzin Jigme, Jampa Kalsang
Director: Ritu Sarin, Tenzing Sonam
Director: Ritu Sarin, Tenzing Sonam
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Reviews for Dreaming Lhasa
Whenever the filmmakers stray from Dhondup's story (and the tales of other refugees), they tend to lose their way.
The fictional story incorporates harrowing documentary testimony from former Tibetan political prisoners, but essentially this is a hopeful look at a resilient people keeping their traditions alive as they move into the digital age.
The script is undone by confusing romantic developments, a convoluted murder mystery and a facile and maudlin resolution.
Dreaming Lhasa goes a long way on the strength of its exotic visuals and gently urgent narrative, but in the end it doesn't go quite far enough.
A sensitive if literal-minded tale that demonstrates how Tibet's national identity is of a piece with its spiritual heart.
It is among the dullest and least confident movies to unspool this year.
Dreaming Lhasa is a fine example of how feature films can be used to deliver urgent political messages, but its dramatic elements waver.
As political statements go, Dreaming Lhasa is gentle, well-meaning and produced 10 years too late and three drafts too soon.
There's no questioning the sincere intentions of the filmmakers, but their dull dialogue and unsure, sometimes aimless-seeming dramatic focus make their film less than compelling.
The adverts promise a voyage to Tibet like we've never seen, but Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam's vision of people unmoored from their homeland is a familiar and banal embossment of foreign anguish.
A well-realized drama about Tibetans living in exile in India and their quest to find meaning.
This surprisingly-engaging, semi-autobiographical docudrama must have served as sojourn of self-discovery for the moviemaker, though it now offers his audience a refreshingly realistic peek into the plight of a displaced people.
Stilted acting and dialogue, but Tibet has hardly a film industry: we should be glad this picture about identity crisis has come our way.
While the film argues that nationalism isn't confined by borders, it also proves that neither are bad performances.
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