Tibet documentary 'The Sun Behind The Clouds' features score by Gustavo Santaolalla

The Sun Behind The Clouds: Tibet's Struggle For Freedom, which is playing in New York through April 13 at Film Forum, documents the struggle of the Dalai Lama and his followers for freedom in the face of Chinese occupation, particularly centering on the 2008 protests in Tibet and the international response to it.

Directed by Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam for their White Crane Films production company, the compelling documentary features a soundtrack by Argentinean composer Gustavo Santaolalla, an Academy Award winner for his scores to Brokeback Mountain and Babel.

"We wanted to stay away from stereotyping the film by branding it immediately with traditional Tibetan music," says Sarin, in New York with Sonam to present The Sun Behind The Clouds. "The film was about a very current and pressing political situation and the music had to somehow reflect that."

She notes that their last film, the dramatic feature Dreaming Lhasa, used dub reggae music and brought in electronic dance music DJ and alternative band New Young Pony Club founder-member Andy Spence to compose the score.

"Music is very important to us and we are happy to be adventurous in our choice of what kind of music we use in our films," she says. "This is not to say that we are averse to traditional Tibetan music! On the contrary, we have used Tibetan music in many of our films. However in this case, given the nature of the subject matter, we didn't feel it was necessary to have Tibetan music in the film."

Sarin is from New Delhi; Sonam was born in Darjeeling to Tibetan refugee parents. They're currently based in New Delhi and Dharamsala--the city in northern India that is the home of the Dalai Lama and the exiled Tibetan government.

"We met Gustavo in New Delhi by chance in 2008, while we were in the middle of our shoot," continues Sarin. "He had come as part of a group of musicians and celebrities who were en route to Dharamsala to meet the Dalai Lama, and a common friend introduced us."

Santaolalla, she continues, was very excited about meeting the Dalai Lama and learning more about the Tibet situation.

"We told him about the film we were making, and this was immediately interesting to him," she says. "Later, on his return to Delhi from Dharamsala, we got in touch again and this time, he asked us to show him some footage from the film we were shooting. He was really thrilled to have met the Dalai Lama and something about the Tibet situation had touched him. After seeing the footage, he told us that he would think about doing the music for the film. We couldn't believe our good fortune!"

The directors were great fans of the composer's work, especially his soundtracks for The Motorcycle Diaries and Babel. They met up with him again when they were in Los Angeles to film an interview.

"We set up to meet Gustavo at his studio and had more footage, roughly edited, to show him," says Sarin. "This time he confirmed that he would do the music. He had just turned down an offer to do the new Terminator movie and he was going to do our small documentary!"

Santaolalla explained that he worked on instinct, and that if something appealed to him, it didn't matter how big or small the film was.

"Over the next few months, as we were editing the film, Gustavo sent us bits and pieces of music, which we worked into the film," says Sarin. "He had an unerring sense of what the film was about, what the different conflicts were--and he didn't have to tell us which piece of music was intended for which particular scene or character. It was obvious to us."

According to The New York Post, The Sun Behind The Clouds "does a superlative job of examining the half-century dispute over Chinese rule of mountainous Tibet."

The Hollywood Reporter says it's "essential viewing for anyone who cares about the fate of the mountain region and the legacy of the Dalai Lama."

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