With Martin Scorsese in attendance, a special 35mm presentation of “Kundun,” the 1997 Oscar-nominated biopic depicting the early life of the Dalai Lama, took place on June 6 as part of this year’s Tribeca Film Festival.
Scorsese ventured into unfamiliar territory with “Kundun,” a film that left some critics lukewarm, generated no major awards attention, and confused fans who had anticipated another crime drama in the vein of “Casino,” which had come out just two years earlier.
Unlike his usual fare, “Kundun” was a deeply personal and spiritual project, recounting the life of the 14th Dalai Lama and his efforts to lead Tibet amid growing Chinese pressure. The film stood out for its contemplative tone and striking visual style, but it quickly became a flashpoint in international politics.
The Chinese government, which views the Dalai Lama as a separatist and political threat, was outraged by the film’s production. As soon as news broke in 1996 that Scorsese had started filming, Disney, the film’s distributor, was contacted by the Chinese embassy. Officials expressed firm opposition, labeling the film an affront to China’s sovereignty and accusing it of promoting the Dalai Lama.
In an interview with The New York Times, then-Disney CEO Michael Eisner admitted that the backlash was immediate: “All of our business in China stopped overnight.” Scorsese himself has reportedly been banned from entering China ever since.
In 1998, Eisner met with Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji and attempted to downplay the movie’s impact, saying, “The bad news is the film was made; the good news is nobody watched it.” He even issued an apology, promising that such incidents wouldn’t happen again.
It didn’t end there. China wanted to continue the stronghold on Disney by forcing them to buy the distribution rights to a pair of Chinese films and hire a Chinese performance group to help promote “Mulan” in Europe.
The result? Twenty-seven years after its release, Disney is still keeping “Kundun” in a vault. Nobody is allowed to watch it. It’s not available anywhere, including major streaming services, and even physical copies are scarce. Most Blu-ray versions are listed as “currently unavailable” in the U.S., leaving international imports as the only option for those eager to watch it.
A few years ago, The Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) explored the film’s erasure in a YouTube video titled , “The Movie Disney Doesn’t Want You to See’” The video gained traction online, but mainstream media coverage remained minimal.
If you’re a Scorsese completist, and intend to watch his entire filmography, then good luck finding “Kundun.”
Having an insurance director is not uncommon in Hollywood. Aging filmmakers, in case a health issue arises, sometimes need to have one. It seems like that’s what might have occurred on “What Happens at Night.”