Tuesday, October 26, 2010


Зүүн гар чинь дэр минь байж,
Баруун гар чинь намайг тэврэг!

(Соломоны "Амрагийн дуулал" -аас)

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Нийгмийн шүүмжлэлийг сэтгэгчид хийж хувьсгал хийх зүрх залууст байдаг



Bande à part кино нь Францын кино урлагт Шинэ Давалгааг хэмээх хөдөлгөөнийг үүсгэсэн кино найруулагч Жан Люк Годар-ын хамгийн ойлгоход төвөггүй гэх кино билээ. Манай кино урлаг сүүлийн үед хөнгөмсөг савангийн дуурь мэт кино зохиол, техник муутай бүтээлүүдээр дүүрээд байх шиг санагдах боллоо. Хуучны алтан үеийн кино найруулга эсвэл савангийн дуурь үзэх хоёр л боломж байдаг болчихож. За тэгээд арай техник сайтайг ни үзъе гэвэл Холивуудын хэдэн блокбастер сүүлчийн сонголт болоод байгаа нь харамсалтай. Нариуулагч Годар хэлэхдээ, бид хүмүүсийн ю дуртайгаа чалчдаг эрин үед дуугүй кино узэж яг л авсан дотор банзлагдсан онгон хүүхдүүд шиг байлаа. Монголын найруулагчид маань ч гэсэн нэгэн урсгалаа дагахаас илүү шал өөр мэдрэмж хайх цаг нь болсон байх.

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Rock, absence of sex and violence in Minii Muu Aav (My Poor Dad) or second chance to explore cultural identity through cinema.



About two months from now I had an opportunity to view Mongolian film “Minii Muu Aav”. At first glance the film appears as a naiveté tale of lost generation of alcoholics trying to fit into increasingly progressive and commercial society where age, gender and looks are all mobilized for the fulfillment of corporate utopia. The melodramatic narrative is built around giving this bunch of middle aged men with some serious addiction to alcohol, a second chance either in a professional or personal life which the film successfully fulfills throughout the film. However, I do not wish to critique the all too familiar and perhaps even cliché evils of commercial exploitation, such as age, gender and its lost social agenda. What compelled me to write a review about this film is its very platonic theme or absence of popular sex and violence theme. In that sense one can argue that the film is very much reminiscent of old Socialist films where ideology dominated the censorship and such carnal elements as sex and physical violence were filtered through state run film production studios. If we take into account that old Socialist system is not in power anymore, the ideology has proven to be impractical and the desire stands apart from naked nostalgia, what constitutes the necessity for such film and what is relationship of it with the audience? When I discuss the relationship of the audience and the cinema I had particularly in my mind Nietzsche’s Birth of Tragedy. When Nietzsche describes barbaric Dionysian forces played out in front of sophisticated Greek audience the contrast is set between decaying Greek society and moral necessity for explosive violence such as Dionysian that could overturn the social order. However, in “Minii Muu Aav” such Dionysian forces are toned down or even suppressed. Instead such elements as insatiable desire and greed is substituted; sex by platonic relationship between male and female characters, money and greed is resolved through sentimental personal relationships and family ties. If according to Nietzsche social moral decay begged for revolutionary violence as one similar to destructible Dionysian forces what necessitated desires of Mongolian audience for sort of pacifist film? Since there is no necessity for radical social change in Mongolia the only logic, for the absence of violence and sex in this film, I can think of is sort active cultural identity and perhaps approach to modernity through cultural negotiation of modern Mongolian identity. I want to emphasize here the word modern because this is perhaps one of the less explored themes in the studies about Mongolia. There is an existent and expanding field of museum scholarship about Mongolia such as anthropology, ethnology and history of Mongolia but nothing yet about Modernity in Mongolia. The rest of the world was so far successful in researching Mongolia as a sort of antique museum object but not as its peer and therefore its subjective identity. Now, how does such argument relate to the film? The key elements in the film are posters of western rock music and the nickname that the main protagonist carries “Estrad Jagaa (Show music Jagaa)”. Rock music and music in general often carry symbolic meaning of resistance and rebellion. For Jagaa was expelled from prestigious Russian university for listening to western rock during Soviet period which eventually leads to his lack of social status and eventually identification with lost generation of Mongolia. The incident that happened well over 20 years from his current life recurs in the cinema again well in his adulthood. If we can conjecture that interest in rock music 20 years ago among intellectual youth such as Mongolian students studying in universities was a form of rebellion against Soviet regime and repressed national identity what purports such theme in seemingly open and liberal society where tokens of national identity such as horse racing, wrestling and revival of traditional religion is purported and encouraged? Here, I would like to invoke again the museumization of Mongolia and transnational forces directed towards local and small nations such as Mongolia. The film therefore stands as a symbolic and newly born desire of Mongolians to stand culturally as an equal peer, someone who wants to be a peer to its neighbors and walk hand in hand with the progressive modernity that is defining the global forces today.