Published by: World Tibet Network News Sunday, October 19, 1997

By Hugh Davies in Washington

October 14, 1997, ((Daily Telegraph) -- HENRY Kissinger, now 74, has been assigned his most delicate diplomatic mission relating to China since his secret visit to Beijing in July 1971 to set up President Nixon's historic handshake with Mao Tse-tung.

The former United States Secretary of State has been hired discreetly to advise Michael Eisner, the Walt Disney chairman, on how to handle the problems surrounding Kundun, Martin Scorsese's $28 million (=A317.5 million) film chronicling the life of the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan leader who fled his homeland in 1959 after the Chinese invasion.

In Tibetan, the title means "the presence of a great incarnation". The movie, to be released in America on Christmas Day, depicts China as brutal in crushing Tibet's religious and political traditions.

The Chinese are incensed because of the Dalai Lama's close ties with its makers. His niece is playing his mother. Namlha Taklha, his brother's widow, is the chief technical adviser and several other Tibetans have small parts. There has been discussion of changing some names in the credits to conceal their participation.

Particularly troubling for the makers is the fact that the parents of a man playing a main character still live in China.

Beijing is also furious that Melissa Mathison, the script-writer, spent six days in Dharmsala, India, with the exiled leader. She is best known for writing ET The Extra-Terrestrial.

Her husband, Harrison Ford, read the script aloud to the Dalai Lama. His wife said: "His Holiness would make corrections, or his memory would be jogged and he'd say, 'This reminds me of something', and tell us a story. And when Harrison got to the end of the script, his Holiness said: 'Good. Very Good. Very strong. Very beautiful.' "

The Dalai Lama also talked four times in India to Dante Ferretti, the production designer, making drawings of the layout of the interior of the Potala in Lhasa, which is controlled by the Chinese.

Mr Scorsese has had to shoot the film in Morocco, transforming the town of Ouarzazate in the foothills of the Atlas Mountains into Lhasa, complete with Buddhas painted on the hillside and golden rooftops topping houses in the casbah below. He also created a replica of the Dalai Lama's summer palace at Norbulingka, near Lhasa.

There have been reports from the set of Tibetans in the cast weeping and praying at seeing the re-creation of their sacred past.

All that Disney officials will say is that Dr Kissinger would be "advising us on various initiatives we've been discussing over there".

The move could be a masterstroke in coping with the growing furore over the film as the Chinese have high regard for the renowned statesman. Ever since he faked a stomach upset in Pakistan to talk in Beijing to Zhou Enlai, the ailing premier, the Chinese have called him an "old friend", as they do with all those they think helped to pave the way for better relations with the West.

Disney has become a business with revenues of $24 billion a year and is desperate to break into the Chinese market, with its potentially vast appetite for films and videos, as well as a theme park or two.

But despite Mr Scorsese's reputation as perhaps America's most respected film maker - he directed Raging Bull and Taxi Driver - Kundun was rejected by Warner Brothers and Universal before being accepted by Disney.

Universal's owner, Seagram, sells cognac and whisky to China. It, too, is thinking about a theme park as well as expanding its television and cable interests in China.

The Chinese say that if the film is released it will damage Disney's expansion efforts. A senior official in Beijing said: "We are resolutely opposed to this movie. It is intended to glorify the Dalai Lama, so is an interference in China's internal affairs."

Hollywood observers are wondering how far Disney will commit itself to the marketing and distribution of the film since Tibet, too, is a potential money-spinner.

It is thought likely that Dr Kissinger will meet President Jiang Zemin or his aides later this month when the Chinese leader comes to Los Angeles in his state visit to the United States.

Mr Scorsese said: "Obviously the Chinese, on principle, won't be happy with the film. I just hope it gets the best release it can. I'm going to fight for this film."