This film was shot between 2007 and 2008 during the run up to the Beijing Olympics that were held in the Summer of that year, much to the dismay of those fighting for freedom in Tibet.
It interviews most of the main players on the Tibetan side – the Chinese, of course, refused to take part – who have been growing more divided about what form the struggle should take, and what it should be seeking as its end goal.
The increasing frustration with Beijing’s refusal to grant any sort of genuine autonomy to the region on the one hand, and its continuing exploitation both of the human and natural resources in the area on the other, have created a sharp divide within the community in exile.
The frustration seen in the film has found its aftermath in recent years with the string of self-immolations that have taken the lives of well over 100 desperate people in the region.
The area is of such strategic importance to the Chinese, and has such a wealth of resources it is almost impossible to see how they will ever give it up, indeed the opposite is the case, with ethnic Han flooding the area to the point where they almost outnumber the indeginous peoples, and prospects look bleak indeed for any satisfactory sort of outcome.
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