AT THE END OF THE WORLD HIS REAL JOURNEY BEGAN.

After escaping a British POW camp in the Himalayan foothills in 1944, two Austrian mountaineers (Brad Pitt, David Thewlis) make their way into Tibet where they meet the 14th Dalai Lama… The same year as Martin Scorsese made Kundun, the young Dalai Lama also appeared in this story of the friendship between him and Heinrich Harrer, the mountaineer-turned-tutor, shortly before the Chinese occupation of Tibet. We could have done without labored accents and Pitt’s character remains somewhat shallow. But everything surrounding him (magnificent views and music) has us hooked.

1997-U.S. 136 min. Color. Widescreen. Directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud. Book: Heinrich Harrer. Cinematography: Robert Fraisse. Music: John Williams. Cast: Brad Pitt (Heinrich Harrer), David Thewlis (Peter Aufschnaiter), B.D. Wong (Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme), Mako, Danny Denzongpa, Victor Wong.

Trivia: Co-produced by Annaud. The story was also told in a 1959 German documentary.

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