ONDOG

Mongolia, 2019,
Aorigelatu, Dulamjav Enkhtaivan, Norovsambuu.
Directed by Quan’an Wang.

While there is a murder at the centre of this story, a dead woman found naked in the open plains, alignment policeman guarding her body until reinforcements return the next day, a suspect and interrogation, autopsy for the woman, the murder and the investigation then go into the background.

The Chinese director offers a perspective on Mongolia, its vast landscapes, the inhabitants and their herding, their tents for their dwellings, some adaptations for the 21st century, a particular way of life in this part of the world. The director has also assembled a number of local performers for his film.

However, the film becomes an anthropological study, long visuals of the open landscapes, of the wild horses, of the sheep, camels and a focus on the herdswoman who lives alone, does a man’s work although she needs her neighbour to help her when a sheep is butchered and a cow experiences a difficult birth. There are discussions about marriage and the traditions. There is a modern focus for testing the woman for her pregnancy, explaining this to the man, her being offered an abortion pill. The mobile phone is also the present in this Mongolian world.

The film offers an opportunity for audiences not familiar with Mongolia to enter into this world, see it, hear it, interpret it, understand and empathise with it.

1. The opening, the police driving, looking through the windscreen, the night, the story of the wolves, the nature of hunting, the horses? Issues of whether to aim or fire with intuition? Daylight, the presence of the wolf and the need to get to get a gun to frighten it away? The move towards the police investigation

2. An anthropological film? Mongolia, the landscapes, the history (memories of dinosaurs), the steps, the vastness of the landscapes, the tents and interiors, farm life, the horses, the sheep, herding, the butchering of the sheep, the birth of the calf? Traditions of men and women, work, relationships? The strong women and their work? Camels and horses?

3. The contrast with the 21st-century, traditional ways of life, yet mobile phones, visits to the city, pregnancy tests, abortion pill, the work of the police?

4. The focus on the dead woman in the field, the suspect and the motivation, the arrival of the police, the presence of the wolf, the herdswoman shooting and frightening off the wolf, the police on duty, young, the woman coming with food, comfort and closeness during the night, the conversations? The covering of the body? The police arriving, the removal of the body, their work in the town, the suspect and interrogation? The preparation for the autopsy?

5. The police story falling away and the focus on the woman, help from her suitor, the butchering of the sheep, the birth of the calf, sexual encounters? His continued proposals? Her backing off? Yet the pregnancy and the possibilities?

6. The visual style of the film, panoramic sequences, close-ups, night and day, light and darkness? The application of the open plains?

7. The discussions, the title and the dinosaur egg, memories of prehistory, the traditions? The lifestyle on the plains – from the past, adaptations to the 21st-century? The future of the Mongolians?