The influential Russian film maker Vitaly Mansky has created a series of documentary portraits of famous politicians such as Putin, Yeltsin and Gorbachev. However, the director confessed that working on a film about the Dalai Lama presented a very special challenge – both professionally and personally. Mansky set out on a journey to Dharamsala, residence of the exiled leader, knowing very little about Buddhism. This was a true journey of discovery, and the film is a ‘travel log’ rather than a ‘portrait’.
Mansky combines unique footage of his informal conversations with the Dalai Lama and the chronicles of His Holiness’s public audiences with scenes of daily life in Dharamsala. The director is fascinated with his subject but manages to keep enough distance to avoid dogmatism. The person we see in Mansky’s film is a charismatic philosopher who preaches peace by challenging conventional truth. Mansky embraces the challenge and invites us to follow suit.
Sunrise/Sunset is not just a record of an ordinary day in the life of an extraordinary thinker who believes that his ‘rebirth is limitless’. It is a documentary essay on the plight of Eurasia, and as the director’s train crosses the border from overcrowded China back into the depopulated wilderness of eastern Russia, we are presented with an unsettling image of the state of modern civilisation. (MB)
Film details
- Country of production
- Russia
- Year
- 2008
- Festival edition
- IFFR 2009
- Length
- 72'
- Medium/Format
- Betacam SP PAL
