Set in an impoverished district of Ulaanbaatar, Mongolian director Zoljargal Purevdash’s first feature portrays a young teenager striving for a better future thanks to his talent in physics. Purevdash gently tells the tale of forgotten people in her home neighbourhood, exploring and exposing its socio-ecological issues.
★★★★☆
Uzii is an adolescent living in the modest yurt district of Ulaanbaatar, where people burn coal to heat their portable tents. To survive the harsh winter, when temperatures may get as low as -35C, Uzii’s deepest concern is finding something to burn and giving relief to his two younger siblings. The three minors live below the poverty line and the burden of the family is entirely on Uzii’s shoulders. “If only we could hibernate, like bears in the winter… Never get cold, never catch the flu,” Uzii’s brother innocently wonders while looking at the yurt’s unstable chimney. Their family is a sombre example of immigrants looking for better living conditions in the polluted Mongolian capital as hardship in the country worsens.
After the death of Uzii’s father, his mother never found a good job to support her three kids. She’s now an alcoholic, and the family lives on the charity of Uzii’s aunt and the solidarity of their neighbours, an old helpful couple. Tension erupts after the mum’s last attempt to find a good job fails, and she decides to return to the countryside. This changes Uzii’s life; he has to drop the few cheerful moments he has with his friends and concentrate on the national physics competition that could lead him, one day, to a prestigious foreign university and out of poverty. But the urgency of finding anything to burn drains all of his energy. Begging for cardboard becomes robbery and finally degenerates into timber smuggling.
Combining such an emotional narrative thread with a denunciation of the socio-ecological context of the Mongolian capital is no easy task but Purevedash executes it successfully. The linearity of the story makes the movie easy to follow, while the thoughtful cinematography delicately immerses the viewer in the domestic life of the yurt and the country’s wide landscapes. These vivid images usher the viewer through the story while highlighting the everpresent pollution in the Mongolian capital, and are never boring. The frequent use of strings in the soundtrack, conceived by Johanni Curtet, an ethnomusicologist specialising in Mongolian music, brings a sad harmony to the tale.
It’s not the first time that Purevdash has let her audience inhale the hardship and the pollution of the yurt district, where she currently lives. Her two short films Stairs (2020), about a disabled person in Ulaanbaatar, and Yellow Bus (2022), which recounts the situation of a woman who immigrated to the city looking for a job, take a close approach to the Mongolian urban reality. “That is why I usually make films that could become a voice of the Yurt district people. I want my films to be a bridge to bring love, understanding, and peace that could lead to real solutions,” Purevdash said in an interview for film distributor Conic.
If Only I Could Hibernate expands on her earlier portrayals of the reality in the poorest area of Ulaanbaatar with a thoughtful eye on what’s necessary to bring to the surface. The result is an eloquent hour-and-a-half, well-balanced between the dramatic events that at some point seem to have no escape and a lucid description of the underlying social issue. The cast’s exceptional performances—all amateur actors breathing the freezing, dirty air of the yurt district—are the cherry on the cake. Their commitment makes the movie a credible description of how to break free from poverty through a firm belief in education.
The Verdict
If Only I Could Hibernate is a poignant portrayal of the struggles faced in Ulaanbaatar’s impoverished yurt district, navigating familial hardships and environmental challenges. Purevedash adeptly crafts a narrative of resilience amidst adversity, earning the film a deserving spot at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival.
Words By Michele Crestani
If Only I Could Hibernate is in UK cinemas from 19 April.
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