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Film Review
The Story of the Weeping Camel
Distributor: Thinkfilm (2004)
Directed by Byambasuren Davaa and Luigi Falorni
In Mongolian with English subtitles
Available now on DVD
Review by Jenni van Wageningen
It is a bitter spring on the stark and windswept plains of the Gobi
Desert in Mongolia, and we follow the measured lives of a
four-generation family of camel keepers.
One of the camels has a long and difficult labour and gives birth to a pure white colt. Although this is a sign of good luck, the mother rejects her newborn and will not allow him to nurse. The herders are very concerned, knowing full well that without his mother’s milk, the colt will not survive. All their efforts to forge a bond between mother and son are useless. Their final resort is to ask a violinist to perform an ancient ritual, which according to legend will bring the maternal instinct to life. The haunting melody and singing eventually brings large tears to the eyes of the mother camel and the ceremony has the desired healing effect. This is a strangely moving moment.
Besides the unusual subject matter of this, part narrative, part documentary movie, another amazing aspect of the production is that there are no actors. People play themselves with a naivety, honesty and sincerity that is absolutely captivating. The plot also has the simplicity of a folk tale, and in the course of the movie, the grandfather interweaves mythic stories of their culture.
Even though the setting is exotic, life is by no means difficult for the nomads. Nor does everything seem primitive and removed from our own experience. We can identify with many aspects of life and relationships, and even envy the family for their fulfilling existence. The importance of family bonds, of community, tradition and ritual is very clear. And these are the very ingredients which have grown weak in our post-modern western society. As well, the understanding between the people and their animals reminds us of earlier times when life was simpler and family ties more straightforward.
Another major theme is the importance of love for survival, especially the love between mother and child.
The producer says, “It is the story of salvation. The little starving camel is each of us, estranged, unceasingly searching for protection and needing to belong. The baby camel’s fate is evidence that no life is possible without love.”
It is hard to forget images of the baby camel stumbling into the wind crying for his mother, and the way these are contrasted with scenes of all the other colts being warmly nuzzled as well as the human mother caring for her two sons.
Christian’s will recognize our human hunger for God’s
love on which our existence depends. ‘In Him we live and move and have
our being.’
Life in the slow lane, the same for generations and largely unaffected
by the outside world, may seem bland and unexciting to many.
Interestingly, the main threat is television. This would interfere not
only with family togetherness, but also interrupt the interaction with
the animals. When the young son says that he would like to own a TV, his
grandfather warns him that he would spend the whole day watching ‘the
glass images’. How familiar this scenario is! And do we still see TV as
a threat to our Christian way of life? What would our lives be like
without television, without computers? We would surely have more time
for mutually nurturing relationships and more opportunity to enjoy the
natural world, God’s creation.
In fact, the movie closes on a rather unsettling note. We have seen children are hypnotized by TV and a satellite dish appear outside a yurt, we have the distinct impression that it is only a matter of time before westernisation makes its damaging inroads.
This movie is a wonderful contrast to a diet of
frenetic urban thrillers and heated dramas of complex personal
relationships. In fact, it is reality cinema of a unique kind!
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