The film, Yeshi Dolma, recently won three golden Rooster awards, the highest honor in China, for its authentic depiction of modern life in Tibet. The Tibetan actress, Tenzin Dolkar, the leading actress in the film, has been highly praised by all members of the evaluation committee, and has won the award for best actress. The film also won the best music and best script awards.

We interviewed director, Xie Fei, whose new film has been acclaimed within film circles, thus maintaining the reputation for excellence he has already established from his previous successes.

Question: When you cast the film, there was talk that you had considered famous movie stars such as Gong Li and Ning Jing for the main role. However, as it turns out, Tibetans take the major parts, and their scripts are also in Tibetan. What made you change your mind?

Xie: I visited Tibet in 1991, and was fascinated by Tibetan culture, as well as the local topography. Since then, I have sought the opportunity to make a film that reflects the typical Tibetan way of life, and have read many novels about Tibet and the lives of local people, looking for a possible screen adaptation. At first I thought that the works of Tibetan writer, Tashi Dawa, were too modern and avant-garde to make into a film, until I read his short story upon which the film is based, about an elderly old couple living on Parkhor Street in Lhasa, who live a lonely but peaceful life, while the city of Lhasa pulses with vigor and vitality.
The story begins when the couple meets a man of their generation, a member of the local CPPCC committee, with whom the old lady had a romance in her youth. The work's description of the two recalling the past is touching, and imbued with literary excellence, and their state of mind is utterly believable. I knew immediately that this was the material I wanted to use as a basis for shooting a film which could portray the real life and emotions of the contemporary local people, in complete contrast to themes focusing solely on the historical aspects of the lives of Tibetan people. There have been several films on how serfs were emancipated in Tibet, but this is the first one to focus on people's viewpoints on love, and to give an in depth portrayal of ordinary Tibetan people's lives in the present day.

Originally, I intended putting a well-known movie actress in the main role, because at that time I had no knowledge of, or acquaintance with, young Tibetan actresses, and I was reluctant to risk shooting funds, the sources of which were scarce, by giving an unknown actress the leading role. Later, however, I made a special trip to Tibet and met a group of young graduates from the Shanghai Drama Institute. I was impressed by their ability, and confident of their potential, to the extent that I was compelled to change my mind.

Question: Was your decision influenced by a desire to show your respect for the local culture and to give the film a distinctive Tibetan flavor?

Xie: Yes, Tibetan actors and actresses can give better performances through the medium of a Tibetan dialogue, in terms of evoking the local culture. This is the unique feature of the film. It is impossible to make film that is equal in artistic excellence and commercial appeal.

Question: You have added to the original work some intricate side-plots. Could these be construed as having been incorporated for commercial purpose?
Xie: As a matter of fact, I took a long time making up my mind about adapting the work to film because the original story is so short, and the author is agreeably surprised that I was able to turn his work into such a good film. I was inspired by the striking rhythm of contemporary Tibetan songs, and fascinated by legends about the sixth Dalai, who had a talent for writing the love poems that are now regarded as pearls of Tibetan culture, most ordinary Tibetans knowing his verses by heart. It then occurred to me that the combination of his personal character and magical quality, along with today's popular Tibetan music, would be a wonderful story for a film. I planned to start the story with the meeting of a young Han singer and the old couple while he is filming his MTV in Tibet, and to add further spice to the plot through legends, about the sixth Dalai. However, for various reasons, I gave up this idea, in favor of a more serious theme. The film actually attempts to give an account of the social progress, development and changes that have occurred in Tibet over the past 50 years, through the personal experience of one Tibetan woman. Besides the protagonist's husband, I created two other men who are also in a close relationship with the protagonist. This was a way of depicting, through the main character, how fate can affect a life, and it was also a means of intensifying the obvious contradictions of character and spirituality experienced by Yeshi Dolma and her husband in their lifetime together.

The film's emphasis is on setting out a particular outlook on life, marriage and emotional entanglements. The portrayed life of the protagonist and her husband is realistically complex. People expect true love and marriage to be the happy ending to their lives, but, of course, real life seldom measures up to human expectation. The person you have lived with for a whole lifetime may not necessarily be the one you love most. In real life, you need, and deserve, the love of others, rather than just one person for an entire life. As Gyatso expresses to Yeshi Dolma just before his death, "I knew you had special affection for the young master, and that you never forget Samqu. I have never regretted marrying you because you are a good woman."

The relationship between Yeshi Dolma and the young master was common iwthin the slave-owning society. Initially, Yeshi Dolma has a positive impression of the young master, and, in the midst of hardship and suffering, becomes his lover. However, when the young master takes their son away from her she sees him as a devil. The audience may therefore witness the protagonist going through the whole gamut of emotions, from affection, to passion, to hatred. The friendship between Yeshi Dolma and Samqu is pure, since they first meet during their childhood. As local people are all devout in their religion, they all believe in the phenomenon of transmigration, which is the fateful aspect of the relationship between Yeshi Dolma and Samqu, the third man in her life. In the end, Yeshi Dolma and Gyatso, reach a perfect mutual understanding of the suffering they have gone through in their lives.

Question: What does your film lead people to understand as regards the concept on love?

Xie: My conclusion is that human life is full of happiness, misery and the pursuit of love. Whether happy or miserable, one has to keep searching. Yeshi Dolma is a happy woman because she keeps searching for the ones she loves, and finds the love she deserves from them.

Question: In your film, you set out the destinies of three generations of women-Yeshi Dolma, her daughter and granddaughter. Yeshi Dolma's viewpoint on love and her personal story will inevitably make the young people of today think seriously about the whole concept of love and its manifestations.

Xie: The portrayed woment of the three generations have different destinies. The people of Yeshi Dolma's generation believe that gods determine their fate, and they live in the faith that they will eventually transmigrate to the next life. To Yeshi Dolma's daughter's generation their stress is on being faithful to their partners, because they are the new generation of well educated cardres in a socialist country. The third generation, with Dawa as a representative, has the same outlook on love as the young people of our time.

Question: The film is notable for showing Lhasa as having all the modern facilities for entertainment and communication, such as karaoke bars and the Internet.

Xie: These aspects feature in the original work, and particularly caught my interest as they reflect the real life of the people of Lhasa today. Lhasa is a famous city, and tourists go there from all over the world, especially during the peak tourist summer season, so the Internet, disco bars, and pop music, initially introduced to satisfy the demands of tourists, have now become commonplace. The film lays equal emphasis on showing the bright, modern, colorful Lhasa and the love story emanating from the couple at the nucleus of the plot. No other film has touched on contemporary life in the capital of the roof of the world. This is a realistic rendering of the changes that have taken place in Lhasa, with no trace of propaganda.

I have been to Lhasa many times. I want the audience to see the real new city of Lhasa with their own eyes, and all the remarkable changes that have occurred there, through stories of the ordinary local people.

Reference Material:

Introduction to the Film, Yeshi Dolma

During a summer vacation, Dawa pays a visit to her maternal grandparents in Lhasa. Her grandfather is seriously ill, and passes away soon after her arrival. While taking care of her grandparents, Dawa has the chance to learn more about her grandmother, Yeshi Dolma, and the bittersweet love she experience with three men over a period of 50 years.

Through Yeshi Dolma's recalling of her past, we meet young Gyatso, later her husband, a native of Kamba. He is a horse trader, strong and humorous, who falls in love with Yeshi Dolma, charmed by her talent at singing love songs. However, Kunsa, son of a farmland owner in Yeshi Dolma's village, also loves her, wanting her as his own forever. Gyatso fears neither the power nor the influence of Kunsa's family, and elopes with Yeshi Dolma. For a while, they live a happy, idyllic life, but this does not last long, as Gyatso is used to an unconventional and unrestrained life, going where he wants and staying where he likes. So, Yeshi Dolma is forced to return to Kunsa. In 1959, Kunsa flees with the 13th Dalai Lama's troops, taking with him their son.

Gyatso can not endure his wife having become Kunsa's lover, and returns to his home at Kamba with their elder son. Several years later, Yeshi Dolma hears the news that her husband is very ill, and immediately sets off to return to his side, overcoming numerous difficulties and hardships along the way. At the point of the journey where she is close to starvation, she unexpectedly meets Lama Samqu, an old friend she has not seen for years.

Samqu is actually the third man in her life, and her lifelong spiritual lover. They have known each other since childhood, when they were neighbors, and grew up together. At the age of 8, Samqu is sent to a lamasery, to become a monk, but this does not prevent him form continuing to play with Yeshi Dolma and to enjoy listening to her sing, and Yeshi Dolma and to enjoy listening to her sing, and Yeshi Dolma eventually learns to read and recite lines of the love poems written for her by Samqu. However, as a monk Samqu makes up his mind to give up worldly passions and devote his life to Buddhism, and they are separated from each other until this chance meeting. This happens at the time of the "cultural revolution" (1965-75), when Samqu is forced to return to the secular life, as religious beliefs are forbidden. Their sincere friendship established during childhood, the pain and woe they endure, and the dichotomy between morality and passion they must face, all combine to bring them agonizing spiritual strife. Samqu accompanies Yeshi Dolma, and together they overcome various difficulties and hardships on their way to Kamba where Gyatso lives with his son. Samqu urges Yeshi Dolma to make peace with her husband, while he decides to dedicate rest of his life to Buddhism.

After learning all that has lain buried in her grandmother's consciousness for so many ears, Dawa is encouraged by her grandfather to prepare a gathering without telling her grandmother. Samqu lama is, by then, a noted master and is invited to come and chant the scriptures for releasing the soul from purgatory for Gyatso, who is mortally ill. At the invitation of Dawa, Kunsa, a member of the local committee of the CPPCC, also pays call. When they meet, the for aged people are so moved that all they can do is burst into tears.

According to tradition, Gyatso's coffin stays in home for seven day. On the eve of his funeral ceremony, Yeshi Dolma also passes away peacefully at her husband's side.