Published by: World Tibet Network News Wednesday, November 26, 1997

London, 21 Nov (PA) - Showbiz supporters of the Tibetan cause shrugged off a film industry snub and threw an unofficial party to celebrate tonight's opening of the Hollywood epic Seven Years in Tibet.

British actor David Thewlis, who co-starred with Brad Pitt in the film, led the celebrations in London's Leicester Square, as members of the Tibetan community danced, sang and unfurled their national flag.

The last ditch party was organised when Entertainment Film Distributors told pro-Tibetan groups that it would not host a premiere party, allegedly because Brad Pitt could not attend.

The second aim of the jamboree was to launch a national awareness campaign to raise the profile of the Tibetan plight all over the country.

Since the Chinese occupation of Tibet in 1959, up to one million Tibetans have died and more than 6,000 Buddhist monasteries have been destroyed.

The film tells the story of Heinrich Harrer (Brad Pitt), an Austrian mountaineer who lived in Tibet at the time of the occupation.

David Thewlis, who plays Peter Aufschnaiter, Harrer's companion, said tonight: "It is important to remember that whilst Seven Years in Tibet is a film from which one can walk away, many of the people you see on the screen suffered terrible oppression for real, and are now condemned to live in exile. For them the story is not over."

He went on to pay tribute to his famous co-star who he said had also been deeply affected by making the film.

Thewlis told PA News: "I think Brad is quite cynical about religion but even he couldn't help being moved by the story of the Tibetan people."

Rock star Annie Lennox also lent her support to the Tibetan movement, but criticised British politicians for their inaction. She compared the situation in Tibet to that of apartheid in South Africa.

"Apartheid is an old word now. The Berlin Wall has come down, and now I would like to see the Dalai Lama's name up there in lights. It's about time politicians stopped only letting him in through the back door," she said.