The prestigious Venice film festival will screen National Award winner Goutam Ghose's film on the Dalai Lama in its digital section. The September 7 screening doubles as the film's international premiere.

Impermanence, which will screen again on September 9, competes with at least 10 other documentaries for the final honours. The 60-minute film brings out the legendary Buddhist leader's aversion to violence and bloodshed, his yearning for peace and the utter futility of conflicts.

"I tried to capture the philosopher Dalai Lama, who believes in the impermanence of life as exemplified in Buddhism. Only peace and compassion can turn our short stint in this world into a happy one. He calls upon his followers not to expect any miracle from him as he is an ordinary man who can only share suffering with fellow human beings," Ghose, who earlier made documentaries on the legendary Indian shehnai player Ustad Bismillah Khan and film maestro Satyajit Ray, told PTI in an interview.

Ghose began shooting for Impermanence in 1998. The film captures the Dalai Lama on his worldwide tours -- including Europe. It records the Dalai Lama's interaction with his followers at Dharmasala. Beautiful shots of Tibet, interspersed with accounts from the locals, give the film an essential ethnic look and feel.

The director is reluctant to call his film a documentary; he would prefer if it were referred to as a 60-minute venture, cinema or a docu-feature.

The Dalai Lama, a Nobel laureate, was born Tenzin Gyatso in a small Tibetan village in 1935. In time, he came to be recognised as the reincarnation of his predecessor, the 13^th Dalai Lama.

When asked if the film could run into problems because it focuses on a controversial figure living in exile, Ghose says no. He explains he has kept away from political issues. The anti-war film only explores the Dalai Lama's philosophy. "I sought to trace the inner self of the Avalokiteswara, the Buddha of compassion.

"Remember Fahrenheit 9/11, which won the best film award at Cannes? Though this film is not in the same mould, I sought to recapture the spirit of Fahrenheit 9/11 in my own way. Conflict and revenge only lead to more misery and suffering. I portrayed the Dalai Lama as an apostle of peace.

"The film is a protest against a brain-dead society which wallows in hatred and greed. It is time we heeded the counsel of humanists like the Dalai Lama," he says.

Impermanence, Ghose says, should release in India after the world premiere, but the release date would depend on the timeframe given by its distributors.

The director, who considers Ustad Bismillah Khan the most natural actor he has ever worked with, says his experience with the Dalai Lama reinforced his belief that working with non-actors is an altogether different experience for filmmakers who can wrest the best performances from them.

Ghose, who won the Best Director and Best Scriptwriter National Award this year for Abar Aranye is a regular at Venice. Abar Aranye premiered at the festival last year. Italy has also honoured the filmmaker with the Vittorio De Sica award.

The filmmaker says his long awaited docu-feature on Marxist patriarch Jyoti Basu is in the editing stage and will be ready soon.

Towards the end of the year, Ghose will take up the tale of the late Bengali writer, Kamal Majumder. The film will star Bollywood actor Irrfan, Bengali superstar Prasenjit and thespian Soumitra Chatterjee.

PTI