Outstanding but...


I may have missed the point. There is so much symbolism going on here that I struggle with the story.
{SPOILERS}
I am lost when the seizure happens near the end. What is taking place here? A dream or sequence of unlinked thoughts or a greater meaning about nomadic life, animal spirits? First, the mirrors at the factory, freeing the animals, then looking for Bagi. But I never established were he really was in the linear story. This is where linear ends in my opinion - or ever maybe when Bagi has the first seizure on the truck. I feel this is where the western audience may "check out" because no reality is established for the rest of the film - just ideas and symbolism.

I feel like there are two films in one here. The first being a linear story about a troubled youth, pained by a obligation to fulfill destiny. He is forced into culture, alienated, alone and eventually becomes a victim.
The second is an internal story following Zolzaya, who is in my opinion, the enabler of Bagi's call. She is saved from the coal to follow the calling. It is Zolzaya who is really Bagi's manifestation and the Shamus is simply the cytolysis to aid the creation.

Overall, I can watch this film again and again for imagery thanks to the uber talented the DP, Rimvydas Leipus. I noticed his use of wide angle glass on both character close ups and extreme wide, scenic shots - which I haven't seen work as well, since Lawrence of Arabia.
-C

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Sorry to be a "spoiler spoiler", but this is kinda explained in the "Making of" extra. Not sure who the narrator is (maybe it's Woodworth?), but she says that there is no single interpretation to the non-linearity that emerges as the film progresses. What it means is up to the viewer. And perhaps, up to the viewing.

So yeah, I suppose you could watch this movie again and again. And each time, the imagery may mean something else to you, something new with each viewing. Maybe.

The narrator does mention that the only real "symbol" in the film is the khadak (blue ribbon) itself.

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The latter portion of Khadak necessitates and deserves multiple viewings.

The latter portion of the film is a wellspring out of which unlimited, timeless, and abstracted themes flow about humanity's fateful course of destruction and its power of creation. It's about how humankind constructs myths to live by and realities to live in which paradoxically preserves us and destroys us.

The non-linear portion of the film is gloriously Tarkovskian, and all that can really be said is each individual's reaction will perhaps be too abstracted and transient to express in words. The latter portion is an hallucinatory experience within Bagi's own mind and psyche and worldview and consciousness that We The Viewer are invited to actively participate in.

It's a journey through time and space in which the past and present and future are happening in the here and now, and it's a journey through the paradoxically destructive and creative omnipresence of a paradoxically indifferent and determined Nature.

The film's poem is the key to it all. Something is wrong everywhere in the world, in our cultures and belief systems and worldviews and psyches, not just in Mongolia.

A girl awaits the death of her mother.
A man awaits the death of his son.
A brother awaits the death of his brother.
Something is wrong here.
A poet awaits the death of his horse.
A woman awaits the death of her soul.
A child awaits the death of tomorrow.
Something is wrong here!
A river awaits the death of its waters.
A sky awaits the death of dawn.
Something is wrong here!

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