The Horse Thief
- -Devout Buddhists, Norbu and Dolma live with their young son Tashi in a clan in Tibet. Norbu is a highwayman. After Norbu is charged with stealing from the temple, he and his family are banished. Impoverished and marginalized, they can do little when their beloved son becomes ill. Tashi dies of a fever. After a second son is born, Norbu focuses his every action on keeping this child alive, seeking re-admission to the clan for his wife and child, then risking all to save them from isolation and starvation in winter. Images of harsh landscapes, vultures, and prayer wheels carry a virtually wordless narrative.
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The Horse Thief is a 1986 Chinese film by director, Tian Zhuangzhuang.
It follows one of Tian’s favorite topics, Chinese minorities, a topic he touched upon in 1984’s On the Hunting Ground and would return to in 2004’s documentary, Delamu.
Like these other films, The Horse Thief shows Tian’s fascination with China’s ethnic minorities, and in particular the Buddhist ceremonies that these peoples practice.
Film director Martin Scorsese listed the film (which was not widely released in the United States until the 1990s) as his favourite from the 1990s on the television show Roger Ebert & the Movies. The Horse Thief was produced by the Xi’an Film Studio.
Plot
The film follows the titular horse thief, Norbu as he struggles to support his family in Tibet. After his son dies, however, Norbu strives to change his ways.
Mirroring the starkness of the landscape, the film is nearly free of dialogue, with only the occasional terse exchange between characters. [Wikipedia]