As always, the festival took place in November, in Taipei. This year the festival was held between November 25th and December 5th, it screened 113 feature films from 20 countries and 78 short films from 18 countries. The 2004 edition of the festival also reached out to Taichung, where a selection of the films was presented and where the award ceremony took place.

The outstanding revelation was “Kekexili: Mountain Patrol”(可可西里) by Chinese director Lu Chuan (陸川).“Kekexili”is Lu’s second feature this road movie differs tremendously from his debut: “The Missing Gun”(尋槍) with its music –video type of aesthetic.

The movie is set in the region of Kekexili, the third-least inhabited area in the world, located in the northwest of the Tibetan plateau. In this region most driving is done off-road. Actually, during the shooting, one of Lu’s crew was killed in a car accident on set and at times, the altitude was so high that the crew could not work for lack of oxygen. The portrayal of life and climate on the Tibetan plateau gives a soul to this road movie. Based on the true story of a journalist who joins a Tibetan volunteer patrol, in the 1990s, to report after a guard got killed. The journey shows the journalist accompanying the patrol and chasing antelopes poachers. This stunning films sets the iconography of a new Chinese genre. It has the essential qualities of a cow-boy or a samourai film, with its desert iconography of jeeps, snow, and quicksand.

The director had to face censorship. The Bleakness of Tibet, the unflinching shots or rural poverty and scenes of “sky burial”, funeral rites that Beijing considers superstitious, made the film controversial. For Lu, the self-imposed exile Chinese filmmakers have often opt for is not a solution. He faced the censorship and pushed it back.

Cinematographer Cao Yu (曹郁) presents stunning images of the scenery on the roads, giving nature a major role in the plot. Besides the superb collaboration between Lu and Cao, the lead actor Dou Bujie (多布杰) gives an impressive portrayal of the patrol leader, while the non-professional actors add a sense of honesty and sincerity to the film.

The 33 year-old director garnered five nominations and was granted the Best Picture Award of the 2004 Golden Horse Festival. It has also won the Special Jury prize at the 17th edition of the Tokyo Film Festival and is likely to gather a few more awards throughout the year. Lu is pleased with the critical acclaim for “Kekexili.”


Jeanne Deslandes
National Taiwan University of Arts