The Unwinking Gaze Review

Taking its title from the Buddha’s practise of staring out the sacred Bodhi tree after he achieved enlightenment, Joshua Dugdale’s documentary may fail to achieve a similar level of wisdom but it does give us though is a real insight into the life of the world’s most famous refugee. Granted full access into the Dalai Lama’s inner circle as the holy man continues his decades-long struggle to free Tibet from Chinese rule, Dugdale aims for impartiality, but a fairly blatant agenda tends to shine through the cracks: the erudite spiritual leader is depicted as a bit of a charmer and representatives of the Chinese government are often made to look rather foolish. However, while it’s far from even-handed in its approach, as a portrait of a person driven by the tenets of love and peace this is hard to beat.