Butter Lamp is a 2013 short film from China (15 minutes) directed by Hu Wei.
The mostly plotless movie, set in Tibet. involves some photographers taking family portraits. Different families pose in front of different backdrops that are lowered behind them. The backdrops are very different—the Great Wall, Tiananmen Square, a palm tree on the beach, even Disneyland—but what they have in common is that none of them seem like the kind of backgrounds that one would pick for a family portrait of Tibetans.
The title comes from the "butter lamp
", a traditional offering of Tibetan Buddhism in which butter is burned in a lamp.
Tropes:
- Big Brother Is Watching: The mayor of the village cruises into the frame on a motorbike and announces that "the authorities" are coming for an inspection and that everyone in the village will have to clean their homes inside and out.
- Call-Back
- The photographers talk about how the new road will really shave down on travel time. The Reveal at the end shows the unfinished highway ramp in the background.
- Gongbo, the young man who stalks out of the frame when the photographers try to get him to take off his traditional Tibetan coat, comes back at the end with a package of butter, which he asks the photographers to burn at Potala Palace.
- Central Theme: How outside influences are overwhelming and obliterating Tibetan culture. A young man is told to take off his Tibetan jacket for the picture; he leaves in a huff. The locals are photographed in front of all sorts of fake backgrounds that have nothing to do with Tibet—Disneyland!—while the shocking beauty of their own country lies hidden. A new-construction Chinese highway is spoiling the amazing view of the mountains that lies behind the fake backgrounds.
- Ironic Juxtaposition: The absurd nature of some of the fake backgrounds that the photographers use. Tibetan families are photographed in front of urban China scenes, or Disneyland, or a mansion. They try and use Potala Palace for a photo of an old lady, but when she won't stop genuflecting, they switch to a background of a beach and a palm tree. Another picture has a Tibetan family photographed in front of some sort of urban marketplace festooned with very un-Tibetan advertising signs.
- Leave the Camera Running: The camera never moves, as various scenes play out in front of it.
- Meaningful Appearance: A young man named Gongbo poses in a traditional Tibetan coat, which, it's eventually revealed, was sewn by his late mother. When the photographer tries to get him to wear a Western-style jacket, Gongbo stalks off.
- No Name Given: No names for most of the characters, other than Gongbo, the young man with the jacket.
- No Plot? No Problem!: There is no story, just a series of families posing for portraits in front of chintzy fake backgrounds.
- The Reveal: The photographers leave at the end of the film, collecting their fake backdrops, and revealing a jaw-droppingly beautiful view of the Himalayas.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: A young man named Gongbo leaves in a huff when the photographer tries to get him to take off his traditional Tibetan coat.
