Statelessness Review – The Dalai Lama presides over intimate dramas about the lives of Tibetans in exile | film

T“The Key to Exile” is the subject of this quartet of short films by Tibetan directors, all of whom live outside Tibet. Intimate and emotional, these family dramas tell stories of separation and migration. In two of them, the 90-year-old Dalai Lama smiles from photographs on the shrines, a reminder of the instability of Tibet’s future. As one character in the film puts it bluntly: Will there be anything to stop China from erasing Tibetan identity when its rock-star spiritual leader is no longer around?

In the first film, a Tibetan man lives in a kind of complicated happiness in Vietnam. He loves his wife, and they both adore their little daughter, who has a sunny nature, but has sad eyes. Hom is a city located on the banks of the Mekong River, which originates in Tibet. The river is a constant reminder of the region — and of Chinese power, too, since Chinese hydropower dams are the cause of drought in Vietnam.

Two of the short films show Tibetans returning to a refugee community in the Indian town of Dharamshala to attend family funerals. But even sadder is the Tibetan artist in Dharamshala whose marriage was torn apart by the tragedy. The artist is excited to host an old school friend who is visiting from New York for dinner. He walks with a limp and tells his wife that his friend was his protector at school. But dinner is a disaster. His friend from New York is hotheaded and can’t wait to leave. The end of the short provides the film’s most peaceful scene: the artist sobbing offscreen, his wife looking down pitilessly. A very deep and sad mood hangs over the entire project.

● Statelessness is in UK cinemas from 16 January.