City of Wind

From the very first frame of Purev-Ochir Lkhagvadulam's debut feature, we are thrown into the - as it turns out later - highly contradictory worlds of Ze (great: Bold-Erdene Tergel), the film's main character, who is still at school at the age of 17, but is also a shaman responsible for the well-being and woe of the inhabitants of his entire village. His spiritual duties are numerous and the regular ritual connection with the beings of the shamanic universe is time-consuming and psychophysically demanding. At school, on the other hand, it's all about strict teachers, cell phones, friends and budding sexual desire. In short, it's about the world 'out there', beyond the confines of family, village life and everyday shamanic life. When Ze begins to take an interest in a young woman, the temptations of disco and faraway places suddenly weigh a lot heavier. Whether and how all this can still fit under a youthful hat - or not - is the subject of this film in images that breathe a vastness and at the same time exude an intimacy in the observations of the people that is a real joy.