The Cave Of The Yellow Dog - Youth of the Land
Thoughts On: The Cave of the Yellow Dog (Шар нохойн там, 2005)
Made by Byambasuren Davaa, this is the Mongolian film of the series.
The Cave of the Yellow Dog is an extremely pleasant film with beautiful cinematography. Based in the Mongolian Highlands, it tells a simple tale of freedom and trust through children starting to grow up. There is a simplicity in the film's plot and character focus, giving rough indication of Mongolian's historical cinematic influences from Soviet/Russian cinema. We feel in The Cave of the Yellow Dog plot constructions and an atmosphere reminiscent of a more poetic, rather than constructivist, Soviet cinema despite retaining a material realism quite strong in much of Russian film in general. Nonetheless, The Cave of the Yellow Dog remains distinguished, thanks to its landscapes and fable-like narrative, as a culturally Mongolian film. Bringing to the fore a delicate and pretty beautiful depiction of parenthood and family from this context, this is a film that expresses a mystical sentiment that 'children must be free or they will die' whilst also displaying familiar themes of responsibility in a coming-of-age story. We are then made to feel that this family of travelling nomads are bound to the land and the movements of nature. And that such is their freedom and life; the great plains of the highlands an open (sometimes treacherous) playground the city and civilisation a sacrifice and place of work. What struck me most in this is the richness of the family. It is in the last shot that you realise that this family have 3 children, dozens of sheep, cows, horses, a house, motorcycle and much more. And binding it all together is a vibrant sense of unity with freedom as a natural urge to play; which at once rationalises why the children of the family are of such focus and elevates the film's subtle commentary on maturing as learning to sacrifice. It is after all the children's urge to play and engage the world about them - finding and loving the dog - that supports the family just as the father's responsibility to engage work and the city does. This interplay, and the documentary feel retained by the fact that this script was shot with a real family, produces gold. I won't say too much. A great film I highly recommend.
Unfortunately, the version of this on YouTube is low quality:
