Kundun is the movie which portrays many themes and raises many problems. Generally speaking, Kundun is a chronological discussion of life of Dalai Lama who was the inspirer and the religious leaders of Tibet. The whole story is the episodic description of the life of this prominent person in the life of Tibet and its people.
The movie starts with the discussion of Dalai Lama’s mother about his father, his family and his place in the world. However, the Tibetan leaders got to know about Dalai Lama who was considered to be the chosen, the special person even though he was born in the family of simple workers.
Therefore, trying to check whether Dalai Lama deserves the attitude and position many people want to assure him with, lamas administers decide to check Dalai Lama with the test to get to know whether he is really selected or not. It should be stated that the main idea of the test was to offer Dalai Lama several things and his task was to guess the properly of the previous Dalai Lama. The boy easily passes the test and he goes to Tibet.
Being too small, there are cases of fear new Dalai Lama suffers from, however, Reting tells him a story about previous Dalai Lama trying to encourage the boy. He manages and after the death of Reting Dalai Lama begins to take part in the political and religious life of the country more actively.
When the Communist China tries to impact on Tibet, Dalai Lama goes to Chairman Mao Zedong to try to settle the situation. Even though that he seems to agree on the problematic issues, it appears that Dalai Lama failed to agree with the communist leader.
After the consultation with oracle, Dalai Lama decides to go away believing that Tibet is going to live better without his impact as being a religious leader he could not refuse from his convictions, while Mao Zedong was sure that religion is evil. Being away from the native land Dalai Lama is sure to returns home some time.
Watching this movie, I was fascinated by Tibet, its culture and traditions. I suppose that having selected Dalai Lama as a character for the movie, the director wanted to show the audience customs and traditions of such great and mysterious place as Tibet. The audience is given an opportunity to see the most impressive and sacred sides of the place.
Tibet is full of mystery and customs which may never be seen by other people. However, the chance to see the hidden part of this place is the main idea of the movie. Of course, the posture of Dalai Lama is important, however, the director wanted to make sure that people would be able to understand some cultural peculiarities of Tibet through Dalai Lama.
Of course, Dalai Lama is chosen not by chance. Having selected a religious leader, the director of the movie tried to show that religion plays an important part for the citizens of Tibet. Presenting the period of time since 1937 to 1959, the film creators wanted to show Tibet and the development of the idea.
I suppose it is possible to notice that the attitude to religion has not changed. Thus, the message of the film was to show the audience what Tibet is and what place religion plays in life of Tibetan people. The director managed to reach the main purpose of the movie.
Works Cited
Kundun. Prod. Barbara De Fina. New York: Touchstone Pictures. 1997. DVD.