Kekexili: Mountain Patrol
Kekexili comes out of the Chinese neo-realist tradition. But unlike recent films like Blind Shaft or The World, Kekexili feels a lot more commercially-minded. Maybe it is the minimal but effective string score. Maybe it’s the shot of desperate men on a wild goose chase disappearing right before our eyes like magic. Maybe it is because this film is not an evocation of daily Tibetan life, but a journey into the barren desert that threatens to swallow them whole (sometimes literally).
The story is about a small militia that goes around arresting antelope poachers who skin the Tibetan antelope and then leave the carcasses for the vultures. The film makes some amazing shots of the killing fields of carcasses and pelts. We sympathize with this militia and their quest to protect their lands, but we also become wary of their methods. If they are violent in this quest, does that nullify their intentions?
In the end, the capitalist quest for money is seen as sociopathic. Murder is committed by the poachers with little to no feeling. You get the sense that the poachers are not the outliers of the system, but precisely what the system has become (every man for himself).
Near the film’s beginning, the militia leader, Ritai, wonders how a reporter can help him protect his land. The outrage over this poachers in an article apparently turned into a movement for the preservation of the land, which is now protected. It is a bittersweet ending for this harrowing film.
