Höhle des gelben Hundes, Die - The Cave of the Yellow Dog (2005)

This film was reviewed in its showing at the Cinema Novo Festival, held in Bruges (Brugge) 2006. As a Mongolian/German collaboration and being screened with Flemish and French subtitles this film had a very multicultural feel about it. The venue was the Liberty cinema in Bruges, which was an old theatre originally, it had the most comfortable seats that I've ever experienced in an auditorium!

Getting back to the film, which was directed by Byambasuren Davva, we are taken inside an authentic Mongolian ger, where we are introduced to the Batchuluun family. As a viewer we soon realise that these are not professional actors, but the genuine nomadic article as we have seen before on several television documentaries. The twist is that Davva mixes a documentary style of filming with a fictional plot which is acted out by the family. To what extent the children knew that certain plot elements were staged I cannot say, but there is a certain air of authenticity about the whole film.

In the ger we have mother and father and three young children two elder daughters and a son, who is a toddler. Incredibly Nansal, despite being only six years old, is capable of herding that family's collection of animals on a reasonably sized horse; very impressive.

One day, whilst out collecting dung for the fire, Nansal finds a stray, but friendly, dog. She befriends him and names him Zochor - which means 'Spot' apparently. As with many childhood pets the father disapproves of her keeping the dog as he is suspicious that it may have been raised by wolves, in turn meaning it might be a danger to the sheep.

Being only 90 minutes in length the film has just enough time for the simple plot and lots of atmospheric shots of the Mongolian steppes, hills, and glimpses into the harsh realities of a subsistence existence. It is a beautifully shot affair with moments of humour thrown in; overall a world cinema family film.

***1/2 (out of 5)