Mountain Patrol (aka Kekexili)

To be shown: 18 February 2008

China/Hong Kong 2004.
Director: Lu Chuan.
Starring: Duo Bujie, Zhang Lei, Qi Liang.
Certificate 15. 90 minutes.

Synopsis

This docu-drama is set in Kekexili (pronounced Cur-cur-shee-lee), a national park in China's Autonomous Region of Tibet. Despite the harsh climate in this isolated area, it is home to more than 230 species of wild animal, many of which are under State protection. These include the Tibetan antelope but the antelope's numbers have dwindled drastically in the past twenty years as poachers kill the animals, often hundreds at a time, to obtain the highly-valued skins. In the 1990s local Tibetans formed a volunteer patrol to try to stop the illegal hunting and this movie tells their sometimes shocking story through the eyes of Ga Yu, a photo-journalist from Beijing.
He arrives at the mountain patrol's camp determined to uncover the real story behind the rumour that the men cooperate with the illegal hunters and also to investigate the continued disappearance of patrol volunteers. Although at first just an observer distanced by the his camera lens, Ga Yu becomes personally involved in the struggle by joining the leader Ri Tai and his men when they set out to cover the 40,000 square kilometres of wilderness under their supervision. Ri Tai tells him that in an average year the patrolmen find and bury the corpses of 10,000 antelopes slaughtered by the poachers.
The patrols meet up with another team at the base camp and, although there is sadness about the recent death of a member, Ga Yu is struck by the natural joy for life that the patrolmen have. His photographs capture the exuberance of their dancing and singing.
As the patrol proceeds, driving swiftly across the bleakly beautiful but barren terrain, a gunshot is fired and one of the patrol trucks swerves off the road. The driver is dead and Ga Yu is suddenly face to face with the dangerous reality of their situation.
The poachers are like phantoms in the uninhabited land, hiding in every cave, and tracking the patrol members like sinister shadows, waiting for the right moment to execute their fatal attack… the patrolmen have become the hunted.
Several more deaths follow and this gripping narrative, full of unforgettable images, portrays not only an unbelievably harsh way of life and culture of honour at the frontier of civilization but also depicts a rugged, majestic landscape that becomes a star of the film in its own right.

Notes

"An astonishing film... to be cherished... Tremendously impressive." - Derek Malcolm, Evening Standard
Winner of the Special Jury Prize Tokyo Film Festival 2004
Winner of the Don Quixote Award Berlin Film Festival 2005
‘Official Selection' Sundance Film Festival 2005
"I spent a total of 6 days with the film crew. In those 6 days, I saw herds of Tibetan Antelope galloping on the barren land; I saw the film group shooting in the icy river when the outside temperature was minus 10 degrees centigrade; I saw actors cry out loud in the chilling weather and I witnessed a director at such a point of exhaustion that he was unable to speak." – Extract from the diary of Teng Jingshu, ,journalist, on location in Kekexili.
"Reality and art merge in the mirage of memorable moviemaking." - Nigel Andrews, Financial Times
Nearly everyone involved in the shoot on Kunlun Mountain at 4,700m above sea level suffered from Acute Mountain Sickness which caused dizziness, vomiting, headaches, difficulty breathing, inability to speak and sleeplessness.
"compelling... awesome... unforgettable... a work of art." - Philip French, The Observer
Apart from Duo Bujie, Zhang Lei, and Qi Liang, the majority of the actors were non-professionals making their acting debuts.
"Best Film of the London Film Festival…a sober, gripping action drama…achieves emotional impact through affecting individual performance and vividly applied ethical dilemmas…The locations are stunning and the local colour, from air burials to quicksand, vivid." - Time Out
The Director of Photography, Cao Yu, has also made several high-profile TV commercials for Motorola, Siemens, Pepsi, Coca-Cola, McDonalds and Nestlé.
All seven of the actors who had to do a scene which involved jumping into a river dressed only in their underwear ended up in the local hospital receiving infusions.
Duo Bujie, who plays Ri Tai, graduated from Department of Acting at the Shanghai Academy of Drama in 1981. He has had a very successful career in film, theatre and on TV and is the recipient of the Tibetan Government's Art Achievement Award. In 1991, he won the Second Golden Lion Award for his theatre acting.
Zhang Lei (Ga Yu) was born in XinJiang Province in 1972. He graduated from the Department of Stage Design, the Central Academy of Drama in 1999 and started to work for the National Theatre Company of China. He is also an independent theatre drama producer and has produced several of Shakespeare's plays. Kekexili was his feature film debut.