Hyazgar

For me, this was easily one of the worst movies I have seen in years. And not because I am in any way against slow movies. I had expected a movie about Mongolia, but this movie has no more to do with Mongolia than Borat has with Kazakhstan. Maybe even less. And the plot is even more nonsensical. Of course it's all right to make movies completely devoid from connections to real life (a lot of movies are), but my guess is that a lot of people will come away from the movie with the impression that -to name just one smaller piece of nonsense- you do in fact need to watch out for roaming tanks in the Gobi.

I always waited for something that would justify the entrance fee, or the amount of time I had already waited. Unfortunately, nothing happened.

The movie was great in a very introspective way. The beauty of human interaction was in how things didn't have to be said, but were just understood through simple gestures. The struggle of deciding what's important about life, whether it's escaping persecution or environmental disaster, or feeling obligated to stop the desert, or following your family, or yearning for freedom - ultimately it's at beautiful tale about following your instincts to live in harmony. As the desert advances, Hangai realizes that his calling to stop the encroaching sands by planting trees cannot be swayed even by his wife and daughter abandoning him. Before he even wakes up from drowning his sorrow with alcohol, he unwittingly finds himself hosting strangers who don't speak his language but nevertheless feel compelled to stay. Don't expect a soundtrack, in fact, don't even expect more than two lines of dialog at once. Actions truly speak louder than any words here.