MOVIE · 1997
Kundun
DocumentaryDramaWar134 min
Kundun traces the early life of the 14th Dalai Lama, beginning when a two-year-old boy in rural Tibet is identified as a reincarnated spiritual leader and taken to Lhasa to prepare for the role. Martin Scorsese follows his education and growing public responsibilities as China’s claim on Tibet turns into a national crisis. Tenzin Thuthob Tsarong is the adult Dalai Lama, and his mother (Tencho Gyalpo) remains part of the story as village life gives way to palace ritual. Ceremony, religious instruction, and political upheaval shape the portrait of a teenager asked to carry Tibet’s spiritual and national future.
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