This Chinese feature presents an impressive but challenging adventure for the more discriminating fans of Third World cinema, although the episodic, non-verbal style might seem to some even more remote than the high Tibetan plateaus where it was shot. There's a token storyline about a tribesman cast out from his clan for thievery, but the film is inclined more toward armchair anthropology, capturing the cryptic and obscure customs of the native Tibetans and the harsh conditions that shape their fate. Some of the cheap dubbing tends to blunt the film's impact, but at any rate the soundtrack is usually overwhelmed by the magnificent wide-screen photography, ushering the viewer into an isolated, alien world of soaring mountains and broad desert basins. This is a place where climate and terrain not only determine character, but are characters themselves: implacable, indifferent, and demanding.
Review of The Horse Thief
