Quiz

The Dalai Lama and his family were portrayed by his real-life relatives, now living in exile. Tenzin Thuthob Tsarong, who played the adult Dalai Lama, is his grand nephew.

Martin Scorsese, Melissa Mathison, and her then-husband Harrison Ford were added to a list of over 50 people banned from entering Tibet because of this film.

Filmed in Morocco.

Martin Scorsese dedicated this film to his mother, Catherine Scorsese, who died during pre-production. "The Dalai Lama represents unconditional love, and to me my mother was the closest person with that kind of love", Scorsese said.

Both this film and the animated film blockbuster 'Mulan' (1998) were Disney productions. The story goes that because the Chinese authorities were infuriated with the politics and portrayal of their invasion of Tibet in this film, Disney quietly tried to 'bury' it so as to appease the Chinese government into allowing the child friendly Mulan to be released there. Therefore Kundun was given a low key limited release in the few countries it was contractually obliged to release it in, and was deliberately marketed as an 'arthouse' film so Disney could try and distance themselves from it. Even a quarter of a century later Disney do not like talking about this film for fear of upsetting the Chinese authorities and risking denying them access to the lucrative Chinese market. Martin Sorsese has been particularly critical of how this film was treated over the years, with Disney even overpricing it when it became available for video rental release (to put off video rental shops from stocking it), having made it hard to acquire on home media (although it has been given a limited release on blu-ray in a few countries) and removing the Disney and Touchstone names from the artwork. They are also still reluctant to make broadcast rights available to television and streaming networks.