Tibet is a part of the word still shrouded in mystery, in part because of Chinese government policy of recent decades.  That policy makes it doubly surprising that Chinese filmmakers would choose to make a movie based on a British author’s work about the Tibetan people.

The promotional description for Red River Valley notes that is’ based on “the last full account of the British invasion of Tibet,” but the movie is less about the invasion in 1904 than it is about events leading up to it and how it changed the lives of those who survive.  Instead, it’s all about the British policy of cultural imperialism at the turn of the century.

The story follows Snow Dawa, a young Han woman whose gunrunning brother rescues her from impending sacrifice to a river god.  Her flight takes her to the household of an old Tibetan woman and her song Gesong, with whom Snow Dawa gradually falls in love.

This couple is just one story line in a grand take of culture clash that includes another romance carried out at arm’s length and political struggles in which most of the Tibetan characters emerge as heroes and martyrs.

The pair rescue two British officers buried in an avalanche while on a “scientific” expedition.  The officers are to be sent home, but one is too ill to travel and must remain in Lhasa to recuperate.  Before he returns home, he falls in love with the tribal chief’s daughter as well as her generous and innocent people.  So when he gets the opportunity to return to Tibet with his friend, who now commands an army regiment with the ostensible purpose of a mission of discovery, he jumps at the chance.

The fated invasion nearly destroys his sanity along with the village after village of flintock – and sword-armed Tibetans cut down by heavy artillery.  His efforts to intervene avail nothing, and he is forced to watch as his compatriots destroy the woman and the culture he has come to love.

SELLING POINTS: British officers speak among themselves in English, which might help the movie reach a broader U.S. audience than just the arthouse set.  It shares similarities with Braveheart, Seven Years in Tibet and Pearl Harbor, which makes it recommendable to anyone who appreciates a good historical drama.  The film also won several prestigious awards in China.