Kundun is a 1997 epic biographical film written by Melissa Mathison and directed by Martin Scorsese. It is based on the life and writings of the 14th Dalai Lama, the exiled political and spiritual leader of Tibet. Tenzin Thuthob Tsarong, a grand nephew of the Dalai Lama, stars as the adult Dalai Lama. "Kundun" , meaning "presence", is a title by which the Dalai Lama is addressed. Kundun was released only a few months after Seven Years in Tibet, sharing the latter's location and its depiction of the Dalai Lama at several stages of his youth, though Kundun covers a period three times longer.... The film — "made of episodes, not a plot" — has a straightforward chronology with events spanning from 1937 to 1959; the setting is Tibet, except for brief sequences in China and India. It begins with the search for the 14th mindstream emanation of the Dalai Lama. After a vision by Reting Rinpoche several lamas disguised as servants discover a promising candidate: a child born to a farming family in the province of Amdo, near the Chinese border.
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| Release date: | December 25, 1997 |
| Directed by: | Martin Scorsese |
| Rated: |  |
| Runtime: | 134 Minutes |
| Producer: | Barbara De Fina, Jeanne Stack |
| Editor: | Thelma Schoonmaker |
| Music by: | Philip Glass |
| Cinematography: | Roger Deakins |
| Screenplay by: | Melissa Mathison |
| Estimated budget: | $28,000,000 |
| Genre: | Biography |