Production History
The film was shot on location in Kekexili, in both Mandarin and Tibetan languages. Except for the two leads Qi and Tobgyal, all of the cast is made of Tibetan amateur actors. Despite the low budget, development benefited from much corporate support, being funded in majority by Columbia Pictures, Warner Bros. and Canon.
The harsh conditions took their toll on the film crew with several members falling ill, including director Lu. Also Alex Graf, production manager from Columbia Pictures, was killed on location in a car accident at age 32.
In order to re-enact the shooting death of a Tibetan Antelope, the filmmakers acquired a Mongolian Gazelle (a second-class protected species under Chinese law) from a nearby reserve, affixed Tibetan antelope antlers to it, and then shot the animal to death on-screen while two cameras rolled. According to lead actor Zhang Lei, the crew was upset about this—as some of the crew had grown affectionate towards the animal actor. The animal was later buried.
Read more about this topic: Kekexili: Mountain Patrol
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