By John Soltes
Rutgers University will be welcoming his High Holiness, the 14th Dalai Lama next semester, and it is fitting that the New Jersey Film Festival will be premiering this week What Remains of Us, a heartbreaking documentary about a Tibetan woman’s quest to spread the Dalai Lama’s message to his native people.
The film is told through both archival footage and staged occurrences where Kalsang Dolma, a Tibetan who immigrated to Quebec, returns to her country and spreads a five minute message from the Dalai Lama via a portable DVD player to the native population. All of this humanitarian work is done in shaded homes and dim-lit basements out of sight from the impending Chinese government.
The Tibetans’ reactions to the Dalai Lama’s message are genuine and gut-wrenching to watch. The audience is right there with them, experiencing the hurt and anguish they’ve endured for the past 50 years. When an old man openly weeps in front of his family after seeing the message, the conviction and truth that is captured is revelatory and inspiring.
Dolman makes her way from village to village spreading the electronic message, meeting diverse Tibetans along the way. Older natives remember the genocidal incident of 1950, and thus viewing the Dalai Lama and his pleas for hope cause them to break down emotionally. The younger viewers who see the message also feel for the Tibetan cause, but have visibly moved on with their lives despite the constant Chinese rule. The deep divide between the elderly and youth portrays the pivotal message of the film. With each year the Chinese remain in Tibet, the natives lose more of their religion and faith in the future.
There are many scenes throughout the film that beautifully portray the Tibetan landscape with its roaming mountains and open pastures. The countryside becomes a character itself, and ultimately proves to be the point of the entire film. Directors Francois Prevost and Hugo Latulippe show what is at stake if this small community of Buddhists disappears.
The film does leave a bitter taste in the mouth when done viewing, because the world’s blind response to the genocide of Tibetans is also dealt with in a profound manner. This is not a film with a happy ending, or even a justified conclusion. Instead, the audience is left with a final image of what is at stake if the Tibetans and the Dalai Lama lose hope in their quest to reassert themselves as peaceful human beings.
