Part of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s mission is to foster greater understanding through world cinema. This year 72 Foreign Language films were submitted for Golden Globes consideration. Here is an overview of one of them.

The film is based on a semi-autobiographical novel authored by Lu Jiamin and has a political undertone. So it is somewhat surprising that the Chinese Film Group, which is backed by the Chinese government, decided to finance the film with Jean-Jaques Annaud at the helm. They did, however, ask the French director to omit any references to politics and to concentrate on the theme of man versus nature.

The story revolves around a young student who is sent to the steppes of Mongolia to teach the children to read and write. It was at a time when the government had ordered that all wolves be killed, as they were killing gazelles and attacking horses. The student rescues a wolf cub and raises it, observing it’s relationship to man and nature.

It is not easy to work with wolves, and Annaud enlisted the help of Canadian animal trainer Andrew Simpson who got twelve wolf pups from the Chinese zoo and trained them for four years. It is amazing the work he has done with them, their eyes reflecting every emotion and the way they interact with each other, with horses and man.

There is an absolutely beautiful sequence in the film – when the horses are being chased by the wolves in a snowy blizzard. The film has some stunning cinematography capturing the snowy vistas of the plain of Mongolia. Wolf Totem was made for forty million dollars and has been received favorably in the country and abroad. The film also reflects the ever-growing trend toward the globalization of cinema. China, in particular, is attracting European directors and production companies to make films for their market. They recently held a meeting with Bollywood production houses and offered to back their films, guaranteeing them a number of screens in China.

It will be interesting to see what the outcome of their overtures will be. Wolf Totem is a good start. Already a few European directors are turning to China for their finances rather than to Hollywood.

Noel de Souza