THE French director of the film “Wolf Totem” said Sunday he had complete freedom from Chinese authorities in his adaptation of the Chinese novel, which touches on divisive themes including the degradation of grasslands in the Inner Mongolia region.

    After “Wolf Totem” written by Jiang Rong was published, some foreign critics pointed out elements that seemed to be sensitive to the Chinese Government.

    An environmental cautionary tale that pits a pack of wolves against an influx of settlers to the grasslands during the Cultural Revolution, the 2004 bestselling novel also includes critiques of Chinese culture and governance, and favorable allusions to democracy.

    Director Jean-Jacques Annaud said that Chinese authorities made no modifications to his screenplay.

    “What I can say is that I had carte blanche at every level until this day. The movie you see is the same movie I cut,” Annaud told Reuters in an interview in Beijing ahead of the film’s release in China later this month.

    The book won the first Man Asian Literary Prize in 2007.

    Chinese officials hope to expand the global imprint of the country’s culture and arts and government pronouncements and State media often discuss plans for “cultural reform” to this end.

    “Definitely, in order to achieve soft power, there will be a need to allow artistic freedom,” Annaud said of the development of China’s film industry, adding that he was “not here to give a lesson to anyone.”

    Much like the book, Annaud’s approximately US$40 million movie, backed by the State-run China Film Group, deals with conservation themes head-on, though it largely avoids the book’s more subtle political issues.

    Annaud said that conservation had been one of his “constant preoccupations” as a director.

    “If we want to save our little planet, we cannot do it without America and without China,” Annaud said.

    “Wolf Totem” is set to hit theaters at a time when many ethnic Mongolians say their grazing lands have been ruined by mining and desertification and that the government has tried to resettle them in permanent houses.

    Minority ethnic Mongolians, who make up 20 percent of Inner Mongolia’s 24 million people, are demanding better protection of their lands, rights and traditions.(SD-Agencies)