Kekexili: Mountain Patrol

Tibetan and Mandarin with English subtitles

The film, “Kekexili; Mountain Patrol” is based on the true story of a
group of Tibetan villagers who banded together to stop antelope poachers
in the high mountain plains of Western China near the Tibetan border, in
the 1990s. Using carbines and automatic rifles, poachers had been
killing and skinning as many as 10,000 antelopes a year for their pelts,
which they would then sell on the black market. Over a decade, millions
of these revered, elegant animals had been slaughtered until, by the
late 1990s only 10,000 remained. Written and directed by Chuan Lu,
“Kekexili” stars Duobuji (who looks like Gregory Peck) as Ri Tai, the
leader of the patrol, and Zhang Lei (a Kevin Spacey look-alike), plays
Ga Yu, a reporter from Beijing. Ri Tai tells Ga Yu that Kekexili means
beautiful mountains. He pauses, laughing, and adds, “and maidens.”

The film opens with a funeral ceremony for a young man who was killed by
poachers while on patrol. As is the custom in Tibet, the body is
butchered by priests on a high plateau as condors swoop down and hover
nearby. When the remains are scattered, the huge birds jockey around
and leapfrog over each other to pick them clean. This scene is repeated
when we see the immediate aftermath of the poachers’ work. They had
gunned down hundreds of antelope and skinned them, leaving their bloody
carcasses strewn over a half-mile square of plain. Cinematographer Yu
Cao and director Lu, do not hold back in showing the grisly details as
monstrous, winged carnivores rip flesh from bones. The patrol shows
reverence for the slain beasts by rounding up the carcasses, burying and
burning them; then, circling the pyre, they chant prayers. Ri Tai and
about eight of his men from a small village catch some poachers who try
to pass themselves off as fishermen, until one confesses once he’s
beaten and threatened with death. The patrol deduces that these guys
are small potatoes and want the big guy who slaughters antelopes with an
automatic rifle. Ri Tai is like a DEA agent finding a minuscule amount
of cocaine on a dealer and works him over to get info on the head
honcho.

The leader of the small-time poachers is an old man, working with his
sons. He’d been a sheepherder until environmental conditions decimated
the grasslands. Poaching became his only means to making a living. You
feel that these men, poachers and patrol alike, are brothers in kind and
really do not want to hurt one another. On the plains and in the
village, men say goodbye to friends or family as if they will never see
them again. Often they don’t.

The scenery is stunning in a moonscape kind of way. Yu Cao pans over
the land, unforgiving in its bleakness. Capturing the men on foot, Cao
gives you the sense of its high altitude, below-freezing temperatures,
sandstorms, blizzards, and relentless winds. To get to the antelope
breeding grounds, both poachers and the patrols drive four-wheel drive
Land Rovers over high plains, through mountain passes; fording shallow,
icy streams, and skidding over ice-bound rivers. Often, men have to
leave their vehicles and give chase on foot. Trucks break down, food
and water go scarce, fuel runs out. Men are left to fend for themselves
until someone drives back to the village 500 kilometers away for
supplies A horrific encounter with quicksand interferes with one
supply mission. The plot turns when one of the patrol suffers pulmonary
edema and Ri Tai has no other choice but to break the law to save his
life.
.
Bad guys are like bad guys the world over. They’d kill their
grandmother for a buck, as does the head honcho when Ri Tai and a few of
his patrol finally catch up with him. The encounter ends tragically.
“Kekexili: Mountain Patrol” is a story of bravery, unbelievable
hardship, dedication, and heartbreak. Ga Yu, the Beijing reporter,
risked his life to travel with the Ri Tai and his patrol in order to
bring the egregious practice of poaching to light. His account caught
the attention of the Chinese government, which formed its own patrol and
effectively put an end to antelope poaching in Kekexili by 2001.

The film is playing at the Balboa Theatre in San Francisco through
Thursday, May 4. Check local listings.