The IFFK has, over the years, seen films made in extremely tough conditions, films that had their makers in jails, and films that had to be smuggled out of the country from where they were made. Drapchi, the film on the quiet suffering in Tibet, shot under extremely tough conditions, to be screened on Sunday at the IFFK, is one of that genre.
It is not a film about just another country going through conflicts. It is also about philosophy, spirituality and some heavenly traditional Tibetan music from Namgyal Lhamo, known as the ‘Nightingale of Tibet’.
Beyond the music, she portrays ‘Yiga Gyalnang’, a Tibetan opera singer, who is abducted and thrown into ‘Drapchi’, one of the most dreaded prisons on earth as her songs on freedom were perceived as rebellion.
Like Yiga, Namgyal deeply believes in what the spiritual masters had taught her. Like Yiga, Namgyal is an acclaimed performer of Tibetan classical music. And like Yiga, Namgyal also escaped from illegal detention, many years ago.
Is this a true life story, we at Express asked Namgyal over e-mail. “Partially Yes”, she replied.
“However in a larger context, it is a story about Tibet told through a character. ‘Drapchi’, prompts audience to think deeply about what is happening in Tibet, and how Tibetan people deal with it in a non-violent way,” Namgyal said.
“What Yiga feels is very close to how I feel, witnessing the horrors in Tibet from the outside. Drapchi became a living metaphor of how we Tibetans deal with fear, control and illegal detention across occupied Tibet,” she said.
Arvind Iyer, the director who is in town for the IFFK, explained that there are two types of prisons.
“One is like our jails, barred and locked. The other is the underground cabins, where prisoners are kept in such conditions that in no time they lose their minds. Because of this, no one dares to escape,” he said.
Namgyal learnt to deal with this fear when she made the decision to escape and trek through the tough Himalayan terrains into the 16-km stretch of no-man’s land between Tibet and Nepal and from there to Kathmandu and finally Europe.
“More than an escape from the prison, it was overcoming my fears,” she said.
It was also an ‘overcoming of fears’ for the whole crew, who were viewed with suspicion, shadowed, stopped and questioned by Army and police across the Himalayan terrain.
“There were instances when we had to tell them that our cinematographer Trevor Tweeten had come in for bungee jumping,” said Arvind, a twinkle in his eyes.
Namgyal said that it was Arvind Iyer’s understanding of a story of this magnitude and most importantly his conviction and belief in her work that made her agree to the film.
“We trusted each other. The same applies to our script writer Pooja Latha Surti and the entire crew. All of us bonded like a family,” she said.Arvind believes that the film ‘happened from above’. “Drapchi is full of the unexplained, me meeting Namgyal, we meeting an Army officer who was in the same prison and he recalling the music that he had heard and several such things. There is something more to Drapchi than being just a film. I think it is what prevented the Chinese from tearing it down,” Arvind said.
Whatever has happened and whatever may happen, Namgyal said that the Tibetans can never hate the Chinese.
“As His Holiness the Dalai Lama always teaches us: You learn from your enemies, especially patience and compassion,” she said.
“We Tibetans are a people of prayer and of joyful songs,” she remarked.
“Many of us Tibetans have left our motherland and some of us have been forced to flee. Even in our darkest moments, we have hope that one day the sun will shine again for Tibet. We may have lost our country, but we have a strong spirit,” she concluded. Drapchi will be screened on December 9 at Kalabhavan at 3.15 p m and on December 10 at Sree Padmanabha at 11.30 a m.
