Context:
Wu Tianming at Xi'an Film Studio was aggressively purchasing novel rights at this time when he sought rights for this novel by Zhang Rui. Zhang then informed Wu that he and Tian Zhuangzhuang had already penned a screenplay (shortly after Tian made On the Hunting Ground) and that if he wanted to make it a film Tian had to direct it. Wu agreed to this.
During this time the Chinese censors still forbade the use of any dialects for film dialogue and so they asked for the film to be dubbed into Mandarin. This Mandarin dubbed version became the standard version in China, but the original Tibetan soundtrack was able to be rescued for the French and US releases.
The Film:
Lu Tonglin: "The film portrays the life of a Tibetan named Norbu and his family. Although its story line is seemingly stronger than that of On the Hunting Ground, Horse Thief challenges its viewers more because most of its religious scenes are often loosely related, if not unrelated, to the diegetic world. Taking into consideration the great proportion of religious scenes, the film develops almost on two separate fronts: a feature on Norbu and his family, and a documentary on Tibetan religious rituals."
"This film presents the life of Norbu, a Tibetan living on the margins of the Qinghai Province during the 1920s and relying on horse thievery to support his family. Because he robbed several Muslim messengers of governmental gifts for a temple, Norbu and his family are expelled from the tribe by the headman. Partly due to hardship in exile, his two-year-old son Tashi falls ill. Despite all their prayers, Norbu and his wife Dolma fail to save their son’s life. After burying his body in the snowy land, Norbu and Dolma start a long and strenuous pilgrimage journey, by the end of which his wife has become pregnant. Since Norbu believes that his first son’s death results from a divine punishment, he decides to steal no longer. In order to keep his promise, the horse thief is reduced to the lowest job, serving as a surrogate for the evil river ghost in a religious ritual, which no one else would do despite its financial incentive. (Even the actor playing Norbu was reluctant to perform this role, as he was afraid of contempt from his community.) As a result of his job, the tribe is even more determined to refuse Norbu’s plea for a possible return. As worse comes to worst, Norbu is forced to sell his beloved horse, which until this point has followed him everywhere. Afterward, he returns to its new owner’s tent to bring his horse some food for the last time and bid the animal farewell. Taken as a horse thief again, he is severely beaten by the new owner. On a stormy night, Norbu sends his wife and the child away on the back of a stolen horse in order to save the life of his newborn son, while he himself commits suicide in front of the tower of sky burial."
"The film presents three sequences of sky burial, often using exactly the same footage, each one closer than the last to the hero of the narrative world, Norbu. In the introductory sequence, the sky burial for an unknown individual offers a seemingly universal version of this religious ritual. Then, in the middle of the film, from Norbu’s impassive perspective, the film presents the sky burial of the headman’s father. Norbu himself is excluded from the ritual, and his gift has been disdainfully rejected by the headman because it came from an impure source, his thievery. As a result, as an unwelcome intruder, Norbu sits alone, watching the ceremony from a distance. Granny and the father of Norwe, another horse thief, earlier spoke of their belief that sacred hawks would send the soul of the headman’s father to heavens by eating his flesh. However, they believe, since Norbu and Norwe sin against heaven through thievery, the divine birds will certainly refuse to eat their bodies after their death; hence their souls will never be able to reach the heavens. As if to contradict this prediction, in the last sequence the image of Norbu’s dagger, drenched in blood and abandoned on the snowy ground, suggests his suicide near the tower of sky burial. Presumably, hawks perform their duty of sky burial for the horse thief, although monks, unlike in the two previous scenes, are conspicuously absent. Norbu’s implied suicide near the tower deliberately challenges the common faith in his community according to which a former horse thief is not entitled to sky burial – as Granny explained earlier. At the same time, this challenge is also an expression of unshakable faith in religious salvation."
Reception:
Distribution: International Film Circuit (US Theatrical and home video, 1988)
Joris Ivens recommended it to Bertolucci, then in China making The Last Emperor. Bertolucci suggested to Tian that he submits it to the Venice Film Festival, but Tian back then had no idea how to do that or even what the festival was...
Sight&Sound review 1987 (Stanbrook): compares to Paradjanov (can some of M. Makhmalbaf's films be too?)
References:
http://worldcinemadirectory.co.uk/component/film/?task=view&id=1173
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