 "One-Of-A-Kind Magical Movie In The Gobi Desert" | 2008-07-30 |
| - Reviewed By devotedfan |
Although it definately has a plot, "The Story Of The Weeping Camel" is in many ways a slice-of-life movie - life in Mongolia's Gobi desert, where nomads raise camels for their wool - and is in fact possibly the best 'slice-of-life' movie ever made. It fully captures a very different part of the world and the lifestyles and people within it.
For the central family, which moves from feeding ground to feeding ground with their camels, setting up colorful yerts which serve as their domiciles, a crisis arises when a female camel gives birth to a young calf which she rejects, refusing to nurse. Without its mother's care, the young camel will die, and the family's efforts to coax the mother are unsuccessful. The concern of the family for the calf seems motivated by more than a concern for the calf's economic value. The nomads seem to view the camels as part of their extended group, and this bond goes a long way to making the movie. Wanting to save the calf any way they can, they fall back on an old legend and several members of the family set off across the Gobi toward a small city where they hope to find a kind of shaman who, it is said, can sing to camels in a way that can heal their spirits. The hope is that this will encourage the mother to accept her newborn. Inside the city, which is fairly modern, the young nomads find it utterly alien and a bit intimidating. The little boy who's journeyed there is the least intimidated and the most curious. In one of the movie's many charming side plots, the little guy discovers something he'd never dreamed of before, and becomes utterly fascinated by: cartoons playing on the tvs set up at the open air marketplace.
They find what they're looking for and head back towards home, hoping it's not too late. Throughout the whole film, it's just visually beautiful: the desert, the colorful culture of the nomads, the magnificent animals they live in a kind of symbiosis with, even the congested city. Excellent characterization and a real sense of magic and love are also among the movie's highpoints. A lot of people seeing the general description of the movie - 'family of nomads tries to convince camel to accept its newborn calf' - would probably skip right over it, but I really think this could be appreciated by a much larger audience if people took a chance on it. This is one of the movies I recommend to people every chance I get, and I'll do so again here. |
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 "Message is clear without understanding the words" | 2008-04-05 |
| - Reviewed By somdcrabco2 |
| The viewer has a bird's eye view of the simple life in a family in Mongolia. They are a tight unit and support each other in all their daily activities. The weeping camel stands out when she finally accepts her little offspring and it is touching to realize that so many of the human race are dying from the lack of love and affection. This really touched my heart. |
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 "He is in the camel business he is calling you DUDE!" | 2008-01-25 |
| - Reviewed By ollyb |
The back of the DVD case for "The Story of the Weeping Camel" contains a rather telling classification guide:
"Universal: Suitable for all.
Language: None.
Sex/Nudity: None.
Violence: Scene of animal being born [I kid you not].
Other: None."
This, I am afraid to say, rather neatly sums it up. There was hardly any dialogue. The "violence" (I've never heard the birth process being described as violence before, but still) was over within the first ten minutes. And otherwise: - well, "none" is pretty fair.
Now usually, I'm quite game for this sort of thing: Slow moving I can do (Tarkovsky's Solaris: check); German expressionism I can do (Werner Herzog: seen them all); moody nature/wilderness films set in Mongolia I can do (Dersu Uzala: check). The Mongolian hinterland fascinates me. But, all the same, this one had me snookered.
I mean, what is it? A documentary or a scripted feature? It seems to be a documentary, but it doesn't feel like one. (How did the German film crew know there was going to be a Rejected White Baby Camel ahead of time? What did the Mongolians make of the German film crew? Now *that* would have made for an interesting documentary.) Are we expected to believe that a bunch of guys from Munich with a steady-cam were just loafing around in Ulan Batoor and happened to catch this by chance? Was the Rejected White Baby Camel narrative a happy coincidence during a routine documentary they happened to be making about a family living a fairly boring life in the middle of nowhere? (Sample dialogue - "I think the last colt will not now be born today." "No. Perhaps Tomorrow." and "Come on! hurry up! Let's go!". But let's go *where*? You're in the middle of the Gobi Desert. Where is there to go? What's the hurry?). What on earth possessed them to go to Mongolia to make a film like that?
On the other hand, if it's a dramatic feature, where is the drama? The Mongolian family seems to be a well adjusted, harmonious, thoughtful, nice bunch of people (and they've called one of their kids DUDE!) But that's the problem: (perhaps out of some sort of cross-cultural respect) the film makers can't bring themselves to suggest any sort of imbalance in the family's way of life (apart from a grumpy camel). They feed the Rejected White Baby Camel by hand. They earnestly summon some sort of priest who lights some candles, make model camels out of clay and starts singing to them, I suppose on the off chance that this might help. But all the while the poor Rejected White Baby Camel is in reasonably caring hands (perhaps misguided from the point of view of animal husbandry).
So, other than to satisfy a vaguely voyeuristic need to see foreign people behaving eccentrically, what do we learn from this? The film never conveys the sense of scope to be a tragedy. The Rejected White Baby Camel is going to be okay. We are confident of that throughout.
So much so that by 40 minutes I had already started leafing through a magazine. Shortly afterwards the wife and I looked at each other, decided we'd seen enough, that we were happy enough to leave the Rejected White Baby Camel in the caring hands of these Mongolian folk: that it would pull through. We turned over to the news.
Olly Buxton |
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| "Documentary with a sweet story line" | 2007-12-19 |
| - Reviewed By gina1998 |
This movie films like a documentary but has a very sweet storyline. It's amazing how simple the lives of Mongolian Camel herders are in the Gobi desert, but watching this story, you can't help but care for and be inspired by this meek little family and their camel herd.
Synopsis: Camel herding family becomes concerned when, after a difficult delivery, a mother camel doesn't allow her colt to suckle. After trying everything, the family's two young boys ride into a nearby town to seek the help of a violinist whose performance is expected to have a mystical effect on the camel.
The ending, while simple and enchanting, is definitely an eye-opener. |
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 "i liked it" | 2007-07-17 |
| - Reviewed By kaioatey |
An unremarkable yet in its own way powerful and touching film.
for me, the best moment was the very beginning, with the old guy retying a rope over the bundle of foraged wood, while his camel looked on, making faces. There was something poignant, deep and timeless in the old man's face, in the way he began telling the story. The camel of the Gobi desert is the astounding two-humped Bactrian camel, looking like a Tattouin creature from Star Wars with beautiful long golden-brown hair and intelligent moaning noises. I never tired looking at these guys. the family was filmed (in my view) with too much restraint, the filmmakers made it look like a portrait rather than a living breathing family.
As for the film, it was obviously made by beginners who relied a bit too much on the visual imagery alone to tell the story. While this can be (and is) effective, at times there seemed to be a need for more editorial control or insight. For example, the roughness of the Gobi does not come across very well, we see very little of the desert apart from the space surrounding the yurt, and we get only a tiny glimpse of the elements (ie, sand storms).
The Bon ritual depicted in the film was nice, if filmed a bit superficially and out of context; yet more powerful was the grandmother propitiation of the spirits of the 4 directions with offering of milk; great similarities with Siberian & Tuvan traditions here.
All in all, an amateurish but enjoyable film. |
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| "Interesting documentary from Mongolia" | 2007-06-06 |
| - Reviewed By andreskarlos |
| The title of this documentary from Mongolia is not a metaphor - there is an actual weeping camel in the movie. Directed by a Mongolian woman and an Italian man who met as students at a German film school and set in the Mongolian steppe, the plot is slight and the directing style is somewhat artless, yet the story is charming and interesting. After a difficult delivery, a mother camel refuses to nurse her young. The camel owners (nomadic Mongolian shepherds, living in a ger in the steppe) send their two children to the city in order to get a violinist to convince the camel, through music, to feed her baby. And the movie allows us to see a particular civilization that is increasingly encroached by the modern world (one of the movie's most poignant scenes had the children demanding their father for a television). |
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| "Music rules the heart of human and beast" | 2007-05-16 |
| - Reviewed By User: A25D0N9505W397 |
| I found this movie to be fascinating and moving, both in great measure. Fascinating in that it's a window into another culture so very different from ours, a way of life a world away. But the language of music served as a bridge not only between cultures but between species. The scene of the musician and camel and woman singing is one I wanted to own so I could play it over and over to my heart's content. I found it awesome (in the old sense of inspiring awe) and magical. Visually, as well, I found it pleasing and interesting. I buy very very few movies (I own less than 5); there's not much that I feel I want to own so I can see it whenever I feel a need. But this is one. |
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| "The Weeping Camel might bring tears to your eyes" | 2007-05-05 |
| - Reviewed By zachfree |
If everything in this documentary feels a bit too perfect, that's because it's a blend of documentary adn fiction. I'm glad I found that out afterwards, but I kind of wish I would have known that before. Either way, it's a beautiful and touching film.
Set in Mongolia in the Gobi Desert, the main story focuses on a camel that gives birth to an albino colt and then refuses to care for it. The family sets to work on the task of getting the mother camel to accept it's baby and care for it. As this story is slowly unfolding, we get to witness the inner-workings of their day-to-day life.
It really feels like a culture lesson, but an interesting one. The film is only 87 minutes long so it's not like it drags around or anything. It does move slow, but it moves appropriately slow, establishing the location, the family, and the importance of each camel and each life.
The final scene of the music ritual that gets the mother camel to finally accept the baby camel is breathtaking and really makes the film. If you'd like to see a cultural film with a happy ending and a good story, this is the one for you.
There are no extras on this DVD, just some pictures from the film and from the area. |
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| "Witness Magic - Truely!" | 2007-04-16 |
| - Reviewed By patrick@forkandspade.com |
| I am a documentary lover, however when a family member put on this film I was just not in the mood. However, within a short span of minuets I found myself quite engrossed. This film is beautifully done. There is a minimal amount of subtitles provided of the conversation, and I found myself not needing them. This film will capture your heart, and remind you that people, and especially children, are the same the world over. When one of the family's beloved camels rejects her colt, the healing ritual that is performed is astounding. The events captured in their entirety left me agape with wonder. I can quite honestly say it was the most amazing thing I have ever seen. I will never look at the world or the relationships of people and animals the same way again. |
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| "beautiful peace in film vs. movie business greed" | 2007-03-17 |
| - Reviewed By vernersti |
| I bought this beautiful film to show it for all my friends and loved ones, who did not see it in film festival "Arsenals" few years ago. Today I received a package and... OH, LORD! When, oh, when they will end this region coding??!!?? It's the XXI century outside! The world is flat after all! Why I must feel like an idiot and thief again! |
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