(TibetanReview.net, Oct03’26) – Subscription-based streaming service Netflix has included on Oct 1 the biographical epic Seven Years in Tibet (1997) among many movies it added to its digital shelves, reported uk.news.yahoo.com Oct 1. The film follows the true story of Heinrich Harrer, an Austrian climber and Nazi Party member who escapes a British POW camp in India, finds solace in Tibet’s holy capital Lhasa, and is transformed by his friendship with the young 14th Dalai Lama. Harrer said he joined the party only in order to be able to pursue his mountaineering interests.
The Chinese government objected to the film’s depiction of its occupation of Tibet, particularly its portrayal of Chinese military officials and its positive depiction of the Dalai Lama. Brad Pitt who starred as Harrer, co-star David Thewlis, and director Jean-Jacques Annaud were reportedly banned from entering China as a result.
The report also said Annaud had hoped to film in India, but the Chinese government pressured Indian officials to prevent the production from shooting there. The filmmakers ultimately used locations in Argentina and Canada to re-create Tibet. Annaud also obtained footage secretly shot in Tibet, some of which was incorporated into the finished movie.
The report said that talking with Interview in 2019 about the film and its ban, Pitt said training and preparing for the role was life-changing.
“For an audience it’s two hours, but for me it’s a half year of living,” he had said. “And this one particularly. Being in a different culture for so long, you couldn’t help but walk out of there with something.”
The Chinese ban on Pitt was stated to have been slightly flexible. For example, he visited China in 2014 for a Maleficent promotional trip with Angelina Jolie and again in 2016 for an Allied media event. The Associated Press described the 2016 appearance as his first promotional appearance in China since the reported ban nearly 20 years earlier.
Oher Hollywood celebrities banned or restricted by China over the years over for their Tibet sympathy or support have included Martin Scorsese for his film on the Dalai Lama, Kundun; Melissa Mathison, the film’s screenwriter; Richard Gere for his Tibet activism; Harrison Ford for his outspoken support for a free Tibet and his testimony before the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tibetan independence; Keanu Reeves for participating in a virtual benefit concert for Tibet House US in 2022; and Sharon Stone for linking the 2008 Sichuan earthquake to China’s treatment of Tibet.