Film Name:雪豹 / Snow Leopard
This is one of the most mind-blowing film-watching experiences in the last few years. Overall, the film is shot realistically, as if you are watching a documentary. The Tibetan area is so empty and vast that even the air has a touch of wildness in it, and the people who live on this land are simple, direct and sincere in their relationships.
Narrative Structure
The film opts for a linear narrative with a relatively simple plot, basically without unnecessary details, the whole film revolves around only one event.
The cause of the story is very simple. A few years ago, the director heard a friend tell a story about a snow leopard that broke into a herdsman’s sheepfold and bit several sheep to death before falling asleep. The herders were divided on what to do with the snow leopard, some said to let it go, others said not to let it go so easily. -The story lingered in the director’s mind until 2020, when he wrote it as a screenplay and later made it into a film.
The straightforwardness of the narrative echoes the simplicity of the content, and mirrors the simple but strong emotions of the characters.
The central theme of the film is the conflict between the divine and the human.
The surreal part of the film concerns the “past life memories” of the Snow Leopard Lama, the brother of the Tibetan family, who is about to leave for Lhasa to become a monk. Lama had saved a baby snow leopard before, and when he went to the mountains to practice, he was in danger and couldn’t come back, but the snow leopard appeared in time to save his life. This story of gratitude and redemption made this young lama exude a divinity beyond human nature. He was convinced that the snow leopard was a spiritual animal, and even jumped into the sheep pen in an attempt to release it directly. He has compassion for the mother and her child, he worships nature and all living things, and he believes that man can live in harmony with nature.
However, his brother Kimba, a victim of a snow leopard attack on a sheep pen, angrily denounces the crime committed by this “uninvited guest”, and he is swept up in his rage, complaining again and again in poor Mandarin. This is the climax of the film, when he becomes so agitated that he repeats his words in an incoherent manner, and even generates a little black humour. The snow leopard has bitten nine goats to death, and the loss of these nine goats is a considerable loss for the family, which is not rich. If he cannot compensate for this loss, then he would rather have an eye for an eye, blood for blood. But after learning that snow leopards are protected animals that must be released, he asked the question of his soul: Who can compensate for my loss? In the absence of a definitive answer, he wants to fight back, to fight for his rights and interests, and this, in fact, is true human nature.
Who is intruding into whose world
The snow leopard is an intruder into the secular life of mankind, the reporter carrying a camera is an intruder into the Tibetan residential land, and people are not intruders into nature. The reporter follows the “Snow Leopard Lama”, who has placed hidden cameras to film the snow leopards, to the top of the mountain. They climbed to the highest point, overlooking the spectacular scenery of the vast land, which is also the usual perspective of snow leopards patrolling their own kingdom. Who has the right to be so condescending as to deny others the right to be trespassers?
Does the ending resolve the conflict
At the end of the story, the brother Kimba is temporarily silenced and the snow leopard is released. The snow leopard walks out of the sheep pen, exuding a bit of divine light, as if it is humane, releasing its goodwill to everyone in its own way.
The director once said that there are some deviations in the outside world’s knowledge and understanding of Tibetans’ cultural practices and way of thinking, so he hoped to show the most realistic situation through creative means. This clip may be the light of spirituality from nature as understood by the Tibetans.
On the surface, the divine temporarily overcame the human, and Jinba received material compensation afterwards, but similar incidents may still occur. If the relevant measures are not implemented and the human ego is not reconciled with nature, such conflicts will remain unresolved.
Because we know, we are compassionate, and the issue raised by the director through the film will eventually receive attention.
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