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Audio Format: Dolby Digital Stereo Video Format: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.85:1 Languages: Tibetan Subtitles: English Region Code: 1 Year Made: 1998 Running Time: 109
Asking the Chinese government for permission to shoot a documentary about an endangered minority in Tibet is a daunting, if not hopeless, task. So Ulrike Koch decided not to bother.
Instead, she quietly slipped into the Himalayas with a small crew to film The Saltmen of Tibet on the sly. "We worked in the shadow of bureaucracy," says the director in a thick German accent, on the phone from Switzerland. "That means we didn't do it officially. And so we didn't have a problem, only psychologically. We were there once, almost three months. And then we went back a couple of months later, because it was more careful to do it in steps."
Aiding Koch in her efforts to film surreptitiously was the fact many Chinese officials had no idea there were nomadic salt-traders in the area. "There were no written records about that tradition. Even Tibetologists doubted my story, because it was never [documented]."
As Koch discovered in her four years of research prior to the filming in 1996, the salt-gathering and yak-herding practices of the nomads are as ancient as Tibet itself. But their reliance on a secret language meant that even among the small numbers of nomads, the full tradition was known only to a few. And so winning permission from the saltmen to film their journeys and religious rituals proved a much more tricky task than dealing with the bureaucrats. "It's a question of communication by heart. You cannot plan that. It's hard even to teach that to people. It means that you come with respect. They sense, they feel a lot of things without language."
Indeed, the only reason the saltmen were willing to share their experiences with the world was because they fear their way of life is in danger of disappearing altogether in the face of modern technology and the threat of a political crackdown. Says Koch, "Certainly, having trucks and machines would help, and it makes work less hard. And that will happen sooner or later. But at the same time, they're losing. I asked them would they still go by yak. And they said, 'We would love to do it, because it's our life. And we feel really good when we do it. We have our own identity. We have our own way of living. If it changes it will be a different thing.' "
Admittedly, The Saltmen of Tibet was both shot by a Westerner and destined for Western audiences. But it is as far removed as possible from the Hollywood distortions of films like Seven Years in Tibet. Indeed, it contains no narration other than the words and poetry of the tribesmen themselves, and the film's only structure is the natural one of the nomads' journey through the Himalayas to the salt lakes. All of which might sound incredibly earnest and boring.
But it's not. The long takes and invisible editing capture the seamless fusing of work, religion and mountain realms in the nomads' daily life, and even people who really hate yaks should enjoy it.
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