Far Eastern Economic Review - February 8, 1996

By Jonathan Karp

For nearly 40 years, the exiled Dalai Lama has travelled the globe to raise awareness of Tibet's plight under Chinese rule. Soon, he'll be coming to a theater - or two - near you.

Hollywood is preparing two films about Tibet's Buddhist leader, whose campaign for a free homeland has won him international respect and the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize. But it may take the star appeal of American leading man Brad Pitt to truly popularize the Himalayan god-king and his plight.

Pitt, who starred in Interview with a Vampire, will play Heinrich Harrer, an Austrian mountaineer who ventured into isolated Lhasa in the 1940s and became the teenaged Dalai Lama's tutor. Harrer's memoir, Seven Years in Tibet, is being adapted for a $50 million film by the same name.

In New York, screenwriter Melissa Mathison is taking a more Buddhist approach to her film, Kundun-an honorific meaning "presence", reserved for the Dalai Lama. As Harrison Ford's wife and screenplay author for Steven Spielberg's blockbuster ET, she is no stranger to the glitter of Hollywood. But the only stars involved in Kundun, including Oscar-winning director Martin Scoreses, will be behind the camera.

"Only Tibetan and Chinese people will be in the movie," declares Mathison. "No Anglos. No big names."

Kundun has been in the works for five years; Seven Years in Tibet has been in development for eight. Now, the two are approaching production. Both crews have scouted out filming location in India and are awaiting permission to film here. Kundun's producers expect to start starting early this year; Seven Years in Tibet will begin in July, with the goal of a June 1997 cinema release.

The 60-year-old Dalai Lama seems pleased by the attention. He has worked closely with Mathison on Kundun. The Tibetan leader has also written to the producers of Seven Years in Tibet saying that he does not object to their film.

How could he? It's based on the account of a longtime friend. At the age of 27, Harrer, an Olympic ski champion and mountain climber, travelled to India in 1939 to plan a Himalayan expedition. But World War II erupted, and the British interned him. Harrer escaped in 1944 and made his way to neutral Tibet. It took nearly two more years to reach Lhasa. There, he befriended the Dalai Lama, taught him English, built him a private film pro-jection room and was given access to a kingdom unseen by Westerners. Upon China's 1951 invasion, Harrer fled Tibet with the Dalai Lama. (The Dalai Lama returned, and stayed until 1959.)

"We're making an adventure film," says executive producer David Nichols. "It's the story of Harrer, not the Dalai Lama." Still, it's bound to drum up sympathy for Tibet. Harrer himself believes Brad Pitt's appeal will do more to advance the Dalai Lama's cause than did his memoir, which has been translated into 48 languages.

Similarly, Mathison insists that Kundun, which focuses on the Dalai Lama, is personal, not political. "We've tried to get it right," she says, acknowl-edging that the film will shape view-ers' opinion of Tibetan history.

Kundun and Seven Years in Tibet end with the Dalai Lama's forced exile from Tibet. His struggle against China con-tinues. And in India, his security has been tightened after reports of Chinese pies in his entourage. Beijing, mean-while, has enthroned in Lhasa a sex-year-old boy as the Panchen Lama, Tibet's second most important leader.

But these intrigues will have to wait for a sequel - or two.

Jonathan Karp is a REVIEW correspondent based in New Delhi.