Kekexili: Mountain Patrol

Director: Lu Chuan
Year Released: 2004
Rating: 1.5

Several Tibetan men from different backgrounds try to protect the sacred antelope of the Kekexili from poachers - though they find some of the individuals who skinned the animals, they really want to nab their leader. The cinematography is at times breathtaking, but the movie is considerably less so - try as I might, I couldn't quite involve myself with the story, surmising that if the government really cared about these animals, they'd step in and act as sentinels (instead of this rag-tag outfit with beat-up vehicles and little money), which they ended up doing. There is a nice little catch-22 in there that has the Patrollers selling some of the antelope pelts to keep going after the criminals, raising the question of how far one should go to right a wrong.