Films 2015 - Mongolia - State of Dogs (Mongolian "Nokhoin Oro"n)

State of Dogs‬‬‬ (Mongolian "Nokhoin Oro"n)

Director: Peter Brosens and Dorjkhandyn Turmunkh, 1998

Language: Mongolian
91 minutes

SYNOPSIS: Set in Mongolia's capital city, Ulan Bator, the film combines documentary elements with fictional elements in the fragmented, impressionistic and dreamlike story of Baasar, a dog who dies early in the movie—shot by a hunter employed by the city to reduce its dog population, which has more than one dog for each four humans in its population of 800,000.

According to Mongolian legend, a dog that is prepared may be reincarnated in its next life as a human, after roaming free for as long as he wants. Baasar roams the memory of his life, uninterested in advancing to a human life.

The film includes brief interludes with a solar eclipse, a segment in which a young man recites poems directly to the camera, and a depiction of modern Mongolian life with undercurrents of mysticism and myth.

Winner of the Grand Prix at the 1998 Visions du Réel film festival in Nyon, Switzerland.