| The Horse Thief | |
|---|---|
_Film_Poster.jpg) | |
| Traditional Chinese | 盜馬賊 |
| Simplified Chinese | 盗马贼 |
| Hanyu Pinyin | Dào mǎ zéi |
| Directed by | Tian Zhuangzhuang |
| Written by | Zhang Rui |
| Produced by | Wu Tianming |
| Starring |
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| Cinematography | Hou Yong Zhao Fei |
| Edited by | Jingzhong Li |
| Music by | Qu Xiaosong |
Production company | Xi'an Film Studio |
| Distributed by | International Film Circuit Les Films de l'Atalante |
Release date |
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Running time | 88 minutes |
| Country | China |
| Languages | Mandarin Tibetan |
The Horse Thief is a 1986Chinese film by directorTian Zhuangzhuang. It follows one of Tian's favorite topics, Chinese minorities, a topic he touched upon in 1984'sOn the Hunting Ground and would return to in 2004's documentary,Delamu. Like these other films,The Horse Thief shows Tian's fascination withChina's ethnic minorities, and in particular the Buddhist ceremonies that these peoples practice.
The Horse Thief was produced by theXi'an Film Studio.
The film follows the titularhorse thief, Norbu who struggles to support his family inTibet. After his son dies, however, Norbu strives to change his ways. At the film's end, he decides to steal horses again to support his family. He is caught and tells his family to return to the village where they will be welcomed while he fends off the owner. He is eventually killed at the end of the movie, though the scene is not made visible. Mirroring the starkness of the landscape, the film is largely free of dialogue, with only the occasional exchange between characters.
On review aggregatorRotten Tomatoes,The Horse Thief has an approval rating of 96% based on 27 reviews.[1] Derek Adams fromTime Out gave the film a good review: "It offers the most awesomely plausible account of Tibetan life and culture ever seen in the west. It's one of the few films whose images show you things you've never seen before".[2]Janet Maslin fromThe New York Times gave it three out of five stars, concluding: "The Chinese filmThe Horse Thief is best watched as pure spectacle, since it unfolds almost entirely without benefit of dialogue. What little talk there is tends to be plain and to the point (If only we had stew). However, from the scenic and ethnographic standpoints the film is often quite arresting".[3]Jonathan Rosenbaum writing for theChicago Reader praising the film, saying: "Tian's originality and mastery of sound and image communicate directly, beyond the immediate trappings of the film's slender plot (a horse thief expelled from his clan) and regional culture (Buddhist death rituals), expressing an environmental and ecological mysticism that suggests a new relationship between man and nature. Tian had said that he made this for the 21st century, yet even today it's a film of the future".[4]
In 1988, The Horse Thief won the "Distribution Help Award" (tied withYeelen) at theFribourg International Film Festival.[5][6] In April 2019, a restored version of the film was selected to be shown in the Cannes Classics section at the2019 Cannes Film Festival.[7]
Film directorMartin Scorsese listed the film (which was not widely released in foreign countries until the early 1990s) as the number one film of the decade on the television showRoger Ebert & the Movies. Since Ebert's colleagueGene Siskel had died earlier on in the year, Ebert invited Scorsese as a special guest to share his top ten list in 1999.[8]
| Beijing Film Academy: Class of 1982 |
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