A South Facing Window (Vorfilm) + Mergen

PUREV-OCHIR Lkhagvadulam (PUREV-OCHIR Lkhagvadulam) Chingiz NARYNOV (Mergen) France, Mongolia (A SOUTH FACING WINDOW), Kyrgyzstan (Mergan) 2025 / 124 min

Supporting film: A SOUTH FACING WINDOW (OT: Урагшаа харсан цонх)

PUREV-OCHIR Lkhagvadulam, France, Mongolia 2025, 19 min, color, OmeU

MERGEN

Nurtai is a most taciturn police commissioner. The monumental landscapes of the Tian Shan Mountains, where Mergen—the fictional setting of the story—is located, seem to have left the population speechless—or perhaps it is the poverty of the region, where only the illegal exploitation of natural resources like gold or poaching seem to ensure survival. Nurtai wants to investigate the circumstances surrounding the death of a local hunter; all clues initially lead to Kerim, who controls the area as the head of the poaching ring and organizes illegal hunts for wealthy tourists. But the further Nurtai investigates, the more he is haunted by visions of seven-year-old Anara, who recently disappeared. Are these visions clairvoyant insights, or is Nurtai being overtaken by the same illness that sent his father to a psychiatric ward? The investigator must confront his past to prevent the town’s downfall…

With Mergen, Chingiz Narynov has created a neo-noir of almost biblical proportions—edgy and raw, yet at the same time fabulously tender in its imagery.