Cave of the Yellow Dog, The

Aroview: The dir. of THE WEEPING CAMEL weaves an enchanting tale of nomads through the eyes of a young girl, using her friendship with a stray dog as a launch pad to capture and survey the stunning and increasingly deserted valleys of inner Mongolia.

Through naturalistic performances by a real-life Mongolian family, Davaa seamlessly melds a sense of storybook fable in six-year-old Nansal’s attempts to save the dog her father forbids her keep, and an intimate documentarian’s portrait of nomadic rituals, beliefs and the Buddhist ethos. Captivating both in its family-friendly narrative and restrained visual beauty, the film is also occasionally and necessarily sobering as a reflection on the lure of urbanism, and its threat to the nomadic way of life.

NZ International Film Festival 2006

more matches…