SEVEN YEARS IN TIBET

Movie Review - Seven Years in Tibet

Movie Review - Seven Years in Tibet

Introduction

Seven Years in Tibet, whose original title is Seven Years in Tibet, is a film drama , filmed in 1997 in the United States , in La Plata ( Buenos Aires ), in the province of Mendoza , Argentina , based on a nonfiction book the same title published by the mountaineer Heinrich Harrer in 1953. The book recounts the experiences of Harrer in Tibet between 1944 and 1951 during World War II, the interim period, and the coming release of the Chinese army in Tibet in 1950. The film was directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud, and featured performances from Brad Pitt and David Thewlis (Heinrich, 2006).

Seven Years in Tibet tells the story of Heinrich Harrer and Peter Aufschnaiter two Austrians, who are captured by the English while climbing in northern India in 1939 at the start of World War II, eventually manage to escape across the border and enter Tibet in 1944 across the desolate and dangerous plateau high. In Tibet, after the local attempts to return to India, he finally reached Lhasa where they are accepted and become familiar with customs and ways of life. Harrer is presented to the Dalai Lama, who is still a child, and becomes one of its guardians, during this time in Lhasa Heinrich develops a friendship with the young spiritual leader. Harrer and Aufschnaiter remain in Tibet until the invasion China in 1950 (Heinrich, 2006).

Discussion

The author, who was a few years before the invasion of the Chinese People's Liberation Army in the Tibetan capital, describes in Seven Years in Tibet. Harrison describes his escape with several comrades from a British internment camp in India in April 1944. However, his presentation is quite restrained and limited to the description of events, landscapes and people they encountered. It records the march of the refugees through northern India and residence in the border area of ??western and southern Tibet, where they live in connivance with local authorities in small settlements. As they should be in the fall of 1945, deported permanently from Tibet, Harrer fled again accompanied by Peter Aufschnaiter. On the way through the central highlands, where they claim to be among the nomads as Indian traders or as a simple pilgrim, they arrive in the spring of 1946 in the Tibetan capital Lhasa. Despite pressure from the British mission, ...