AllMovie

Heart of Tibet: An Intimate Portrait of the 14th Dalai Lama is both a biography of His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, and a documentary that chronicles the history of Tibet under Chinese occupation. Introduced by Jimmy Carter, the Dalai Lama is portrayed as a spiritual and political leader, teacher and intellectual, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate. The 60-minute film features interviews with the Dalai Lama during his 1989 visit to Los Angeles, as well as comments from his American bodyguard, Paul "Tiny" Stacy, about what it is like to protect one of the most famous men in the world. Film smuggled out of Lhasa provides rare footage of atrocities committed against unarmed Tibetans by the Chinese military police. Special highlights include interviews with Robert Thurman, Professor of Buddhist Studies at Columbia University, and John Avedon, author of In Exile from the Land of Snows.