MOUNTAIN PATROL EXPOSES THE ROLE OF A FREE PRESS IN PRE-TIANANMEN CHINA
Kekexili (Mountain Patrol), directed by Chuan Lu, is based on a true story about a volunteer group of Chinese who are trying to stop poachers from illegally harvesting antelope skin in Kekexili, a remote part of China on the Tibetan border where the elevation is about 21,000 feet. Titles at the beginning inform filmviewers that 1,000,000 chiru (Himalayan antelope) once grazed peacefully, but only 10,000 were left by the mid-1980s. Accordingly, in 1983 a group of Chinese led by Ritai (played by Duo Bujie) form a volunteer patrol to catch the poachers. When the movie begins, the year is 1986, and a scene of antelope grazing on the Chinese Himalayas adorns the screen. A man asleep in his car is awakened, then shot dead outside the car. Afterward, shots are fired, antelope die, and poachers descend upon them. In town, a funeral is held for the dead man, a government anti-poaching agent; in attendance are the volunteers as well as a recently arrivd Beijing journalist, Gayu (played by Zhang Lei). Promising to bring publicity for their cause, the journalist soon accompanies the volunteers on a ten-day hunt for the poachers. The bulk of the film, then, is a portrayal of sacrifices made by the volunteers to locate the poachers in difficult terrain. In addition to breathtaking cinematography of the barren slopes of the Chinese Himalayas, audiences see men braving bitter cold, frostbite, snowstorms, lack of food, quicksand, wounds, shortness of breath, exhaustion, and vehicles breaking down for lack of oil and gas. After seeing carrion crows feeding on antelope carcasses, they capture those who had been skinning the antelopes, who in turn say that they formerly were farmers, but the soil deteriorated so much that they could not continue in that occupation, so they now work for an entrepreneur who pays them a certain amount per skin. However, a later scene with cattle belies their claim. The paradigm of the hunt for the poachers, of course, is of Captain Ahab and the Great Whale. But when Ritai eventually meets the poacher ringleader, the latter shoots him dead. Gayu, however, is spared. When he returns to Beijing to write the sensational story, the government responds by establishing the area as a nature reserve and sends considerable agents to track down the poachers. The result is that there are now some 30,000 Himalayan antelopes, which are increasing in number thanks to successful law enforcement. No mention is made of the customers of the soft antelope fur in the West who ultimately fund the antelope holocaust, but the film may increase support for animal rights groups that urge a total ban on the fur trade. Because the movie shows a government responsive to injustices exposed by freedom of the press, filmviewers may have a glimpse of the atmosphere that existed as demonstrators poured into Tiananmen Square three years later, eager to be granted more democratic freedoms and a crackdown on corruption. The story of the fur trade prompts the Political Film Society to nominate Kekexili as best film exposé released in 2006. MH