Very beautiful and human film
I'm rather satisfied with what my compatriots picked to win the Golden Bear - I truly loved this film, the story, the characters, the cinematography, the way how this film looked real (at least to my Western eyes) without craving for effect or trying to baffle. A solid story, touching, but not sentimental, unfolds before the viewer and successfully manages to get us involved into the lives of people from a faraway place.
To me nothing is more fascinating than human beings and to learn about the differences in cultures, the wonderful diversity which is the greatest resource of mankind. Therefore Tuya and her family won my attention effortlessly; this was my third film set in Mongolia, but showed an aspect of life I wasn't familiar with: what happens to a family of stockbreeders when one person's manpower is omitted? Tuya tries to manage without her husband's help: doing the cooking, dealing with the herds, there are two kids, and every morning she has to ride for miles on her camel only for the daily water supply.
She could take the easy way out: get a divorce, leave Bater to his fate, move to town with her kids and remarry. But she loves her husband and feels responsible for him - but going on like she tried to is getting over her strength, and the entire family is at risk to end up in poverty as her health begins to fail. So she agrees with her husband that they will divorce and she'll remarry someone who will accept him in his house, too.
Her attempts to find a new husband who will accept her conditions is told with subtle humor which never diminishs the hardship and the emotional turmoil of the participants in this story; and the ending is quite a smart shift away from the two possibilities that come to mind naturally which I found quite admirable - even the director isn't taking the easy way out. This is what I'd call an honest film, the category of cinema that never fails to interest me.
Regards, Rosabel