We're No Monks
From DharmaflixWiki
 Add to Queue Not a Member
|  Wikipedia Entry
|
 Buy DVD
|  del.icio.us
|
[edit] Blurb
A struggle for identity .
Shot on location around McLeod Ganj, Dharamshala and Tibetan camp Delhi, India, We're No Monks is a story about the dreams, aspirations and desires of four strugglers living in Mcleod Ganj. Their day-to-day life under personal, social, political and economic frustrations pushes them to prove that they too can be useful people. They decide to become terrorists and kidnap some Chinese diplomats in Delhi. It turns out eventually that personal agendas were responsible for bringing them down to Delhi rather than the mission. However, in a shocking twist one of them actually does turn into a human bomb. Why did he do it? This film is thus a search for an answer to this question.
[edit] View from Nowhere
[edit] Other Views from Nowhere
The radical Indo-Tibetan film ‘We’re No Monks’ received its UK premiere in London on Sunday 11 July 2004. More than 100 people attended the screening organised by the Tibet Society of the UK and the Tibetan/Jewish Youth Exchange, the London-wing of Tibetan youth movement Longsho.
Director Pema Dhondup was there to answer questions after the film. The reaction to the film was universally favourable, although many people were surprised and disturbed by its naturalistic portrayal of life in Dharamsala.
Answering questions from the audience after the screening, Pema Dhondup said that his abiding inspiration was His Holiness the Dalai Lama and his example of showing compassion in the face of his enemy. He said: ‘The world needs to resolve the Tibetan issue while the Dalai Lama is there to guide his people or it may be too late.’
In terms of his cinematic influences, Pema Dhondup said that he was particularly influenced by Italian neo-realism, for instance ‘The Battle of Algiers’, and Hollywood films such as ‘Pulp Fiction’. He added that he was still finishing his film for theatrical distribution and that financial aid would be necessary for him to achieve this.
Philippa Carrick of the Tibet Society said: ‘When we organised the screening of ‘We’re No Monks’, we knew the film dealt with vital issues confronting the Tibetan community, such as drug problems among Tibetan youth and the temptation to take up violence in the struggle for freedom. But none of us knew whether it was any good. I am delighted to say that the film exceeded all expectations: it is an excellent, sophisticated, gripping and genuinely innovative piece of contemporary cinema that demands to be seen by a worldwide audience.’[1]
He is the angry young face of Tibetan exiles in India, fighting the stereotypical view of Tibetans as peace-loving monks.
Scene from We're No Monks A scene from the film, We're No Monks
Now Pema Dhondup has made what he says is the first film to explore discontent among the young Tibetan exiles.
We're No Monks is a radical Tibetan-English film which, according to Dhondup, is far removed from Hollywood's "Shangri-La image" of Tibetan identity.
It is the story of four disaffected young Tibetan exiles who get catapulted into a "violent mission for Tibet's freedom".
Chinese forces took control of Tibet in 1959 and Beijing insists Tibet is part of China.
The four exiles' "mission" takes them to the Indian capital Delhi, where one of them becomes a human bomb killing a visiting Chinese diplomat.
Violence and vice
The 37-year-old Dhondup, who studied filmmaking at an American film school on a Fulbright scholarship, is a second generation exile.
Monks in procession The film is trying to challenge Tibetan stereotypes
He lives in Dharamsala, the north Indian hill-town which is home to Dalai Lama, the Tibetans temporal leader, and to the majority of Tibetan exiles in India.
Dhondup says young exiles are becoming "confused and disillusioned" with the pace of progress in reclaiming their homeland.
"I have a straightforward view. Nobody will do anything for us unless we do something ourselves," Mr Dhondup told BBC News Online.
"Non violence does not mean non-action. The Tibetan cause is not moving forward and a change in approach may be necessary."
Dhondup also finds the image of Tibetans as "peace-loving monks" is flawed.
"There are very ordinary Tibetans who get angry, have ordinary vices. If tomorrow they take to violence as a means to express themselves, please do not be surprised."
The filmmaker, who loves watching Akira Kurosawa, David Lean, Quentin Tarantino and Martin Scorsese, says the title of his film says it all.
Dalai Lama
We're No Monks is a departure from big-budget, star-studded films on Tibet like Kundun and Seven Years in Tibet.
For one, the 100-member crew, including some 40 actors, worked without a fee - most had never faced the cameras before.
Pema Dhondup Fulbright scholar Pema Dhondup learnt film-making in the US
The cast includes Bollywood baddie Gulshan Grover, who plays the role of a police officer.
Grover read the script and agreed to waive his fee for the film, even bringing his own costume from Bombay (Mumbai).
"We even kidnapped a random stranger off the road to play an extra! I did the same to my mother," says Mr Dhondup.
That would explain the film's paltry 3,000,000 rupee ($ 66,666) budget.
Dhondup has also meshed fiction with real life, using real crowds, including a scene which shows the Dalai Lama's convoy moving through town.
Suicide bombers
The filmmaker represents the young Tibetan community who are not very happy with the way the world regards them.
"During a student party in America, I was having chicken and sipping wine when a friend shrieked: 'Look Pema is having meat! He is a Tibetan!'" he recalls.
"I was shocked. I had to tell her that I do lots of other things too. I think somebody should tell stories about the ordinary Tibetan who is not a monk and has ordinary desires."
Tibetan activists on Human Rights Day Activists at prayer: The struggle's pace has left some frustrated
That is exactly what Dhondup has set out to do with his film.
Now he is working on a screenplay about a legendary Tibetan king which fuses magic and philosophy.
But before he makes his Tibetan Lord of The Rings, Dhondup will be taking his film around the world.
He wants to argue that many Tibetans want to take radical action for their homeland.
His justification of violence is far removed from the Dalai Lama's views - the Tibetan spiritual leader condemns violence and favours dialogue as solution to the Tibet problem.
There are 1.3 million Tibetan exiles in India.
