`WINDHORSE' ENJOYABLY ANGRY.

Byline: Bob Strauss Daily News Film Critic

The story of making ``Windhorse'' probably would be a better movie than the actual product here. The picture at hand, though, has its pluses.

First the background. Longtime documentarian Paul Wagner, who won an Oscar for the ethnographic film ``The Stone Carvers,'' got upset after a niece, Julia Elliott, was detained by Chinese authorities in Tibet and decided to do something about it.

With Elliott and her Tibetan boyfriend Thupten Tsering (he cooked up a script) clandestinely shot some footage in Tibet's capital, Lhasa, on a high-definition video handicam and even secretly cast a bunch of locals (many of the credits, including one of the three main character's, are simply listed as Name Withheld to protect the performers from communist government reprisals).

Most of the movie was filmed in neighboring Nepal with members of the Tibetan exile community. The result, Wagner claims, is the first feature film made in authentic Tibetan and Chinese dialects.

``Windhorse'' itself is a simplistic but enjoyably angry piece of propaganda. Its characters are more representations than fully rounded human beings, but they nonetheless come off more like real people than the devout, stoic sufferers Western films such as ``Seven Years in Tibet'' love to idealize. The Tibetans portrayed here are individually ambitious, dissolute, religious (but hardly serene), or filled with hatred for the Chinese communists who've occupied their country since the 1950s.

The main characters are a brother and a sister. Dolkar (Dadong) is a pretty pop singer whose Chinese boyfriend Duan-ping (Richard Chang) introduces her to political honcho Du (Lu Yu), who is going to give her a big recording contract - provided she sings Mao's praises at her first recording session. Dorjee (Jampa Kelsang), is a billiards-playing wastrel who drinks too much and argues with his freedom-minded friends that it's futile peacefully resisting Beijing's rule.

Their cousin Pema (name withheld) is a Buddhist nun who gets arrested for protesting in the Lhasa marketplace. This places Dolkar's career and Dorjee's disillusionment in jeopardy, especially after an American tourist (Taije Silverman) expresses interest in Tibetan ways in general and him in particular.

Wagner presents his story with both a heavy hand and, incongruously, a light touch (maybe it's a Zen thing). Dolkar and Dorjee all too obviously stand for the dangers of assimilation and despair; every communist, even the token nice guy, is a rigid rule-lover, and most of them chain smoke to boot; though Wagner holds off on graphic brutality through much of the film, it's only a matter of time before the cattle prods come out.

Yet the actors nicely underplay their potentially shrill roles, and the film devotes lots of time to detailed observation of both traditional and contemporary aspects of Tibetan life. And while its populist appeal to righteous indignation may be crude, it gives ``Windhorse'' a humanizing energy that both transcends cultural barriers and exerts a surprising, involving appeal.

THE FACTS

The film: ``Windhorse'' (not rated; language, violence, substance abuse).

The stars: Dadon, Jampa Kelsang, Richard Chang.

Behind the scenes: Directed and produced by Paul Wagner. Written by Wagner, Julia Elliott and Thupten Tsering. Released by Shadow Distribution.

Running time: One hour, 37 minutes.

Playing: Nuart, West Los Angeles.

Our rating: Three stars.