Seven Years in Tibet

Seven Years in Tibet is a 1997 film based on the book of the same name written by Austrian mountaineer Heinrich Harrer based on his experiences in Tibet between 1944 and 1951 during the Second World War, the interim period, and the Chinese People's Liberation Army invasion in 1950. The film was directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud and starred Brad Pitt and David Thewlis. The score was composed by John Williams and features cellist Yo-Yo Ma.

Seven Years in Tibet tells the story of how Austrians Heinrich Harrer and Peter Aufschnaiter, having been imprisoned by the British while mountaineering in the north of India at the beginning of World War II in 1939, eventually escape across the border into Tibet in 1944 and cross the treacherous high plateau. There in Tibet, after initially being ordered to return to India, they are welcomed at Lhasa and become acquainted with an unfamiliar way of life. Harrer is introduced to the Dalai Lama, who is still a boy, and he becomes a tutor and then close friend to the young spiritual leader during his time in Lhasa. Harrer and Aufschnaiter remain in the country until the Communist Chinese invasion in 1950.