Snow Leopard is an arthouse drama that meditates on the subject of animal preservation. It presents a deep poetic exploration into the transcendental from a Tibetan context. It is the final film of writer-director Pema Tseden, who passed away last year before the film's release.
Set in a village in the deep Tibetan mountains, a snow leopard sneaks into a sheep pen and kills 9 sheep.
Jinpa, a local shepherd, locks the snow leopard in his sheep pen and vows to kill the snow leopard unless there's financial compensation for his loss.
As an endangered species, the snow leopard is protected under environmental protection law and killing it is considered a major crime.
Nyima, Jinpa's brother, tips off his former classmate Dradul, a TV reporter, who arrives with a TV crew to cover the incident.
Having past encounters with the snow leopard and acting out of Buddhist faith, Nyima is against killing the animal. Nyima's father is also against the killing, viewing the snow leopard as a spirit animal, and that it used to be a cultural tradition to set the creature free.
As the family and the TV crew wait for the authorities to arrive, they argue over what to do with the snow leopard...
Writer-director Pema Tseden dives into the uncanny, suggesting that there's an unspoken relationship between man and animals. Is there a mutual balance between the species, or perhaps even a long-forgotten friendship? There's even a suggestion of humanity within the snow leopard itself.
Tseden communicates these rich fanciful ideas with earnestness, patiently easing the audience into the Tibetan perspective, examining the problem through tradition, modernity, law, religion and money. Slowly, the film pulls you into its spiritual head space.
As Jinpa explains in the story, the snow leopard usually eats 1 to 2 sheep, which he willingly tolerates as an acceptable loss. Why did the snow leopard kill 9 sheep this particular time? Was this an act of rage or a final battle cry from being the last of its species? Did the snow leopard cross the line because humans crossed the line first?
I was reminded of the divisive dinosaur scene from Terrence Malick's Tree of Life. It's a scene that I understood intellectually but didn't feel in the gut viscerally. Perhaps Malick simply made his point too quickly.
Tseden inherently understands the screen time required in making such a profound statement and not coming off pretentious. Tseden's greatest talent, in my opinion, is letting the audience sit there, observe and soak it all in with no fear of boring them.
Pema Tseden will be sorely missed. There's a universality to how he presents Tibetan culture in his films with such poetry and beauty.
