Windhorse

Paul Wagner took advantage of his pronounced documentary background while making this feature situated in Tibet. The political tone of the story forced him to adopt a very roundabout approach. The film was shot secretly, partly in Tibet and partly in Nepal, and Wagner used two digital cameras: a large professional camera for the interior shots and a small amateur camera for outdoors. Thanks to the small camera, he was able to pretend to be a tourist, while the quality of his handy digital-camera pictures guaranteed they could be blown up to cinema format.The film is set in today’s Tibet under Chinese occupation andtells the story of Dolkan, a singer. She has aspirations to be a Tibetan pop star. She collaborates with the Chinese authorities, but finds herself in a crisis of conscience when her cousin Pema, a Buddhist nun, is taken prisoner and tortured because of her religious faith.Wagner largely worked with Tibetans he found on the spot and most of them had no acting experience. If a scene had too obvious a political meaning, such as a demonstration being broken up by the police, it was shot with Tibetan actors in Nepal. Wagner aimed for the greatest possible degree of authenticity and also reacted against popular Tibet films such as Kundun (shot in Morocco) and Seven Years in Tibet (shot in Argentina).