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Byambasuren Davaa (photo courtesy of X Verleih) DIRECTOR’S PORTRAIT Byambasuren Davaa was born in the Mongolian capital Ulan Bator in 1971. From 1989 to 1994, she worked for Mongolian State Television as a presenter and assistant director; parallel to this, in 1993, she began a two-year course in Law at the university of her home town. She then began to study at the College of Cinematic Art in Ulan Bator in 1998. Two years later, she moved to Germany to continue her studies in the Department of Documentary Film at the Academy of Television and Film (HFF/M) in Munich. Only her second film at the HFF/M, The Story of the Weeping Camel (Die Geschichte vom weinenden Kamel, 2003), which she realized together with her fellow student Luigi Falorni, became one of the most successful cinema documentaries of recent years: this film about an ancient ritual among Mongolian nomads was sold in around 80 countries and enthusiastically greeted by millions of cinema viewers all over the world. It has also won numerous international prizes – including Audience Awards at the festivals in Karlovy Vary, Indianapolis and Buenos Aires. In addition, it was nominated for an OSCAR in the category Best Documentary Film. Newsweek praised the director for her outstanding awareness of natural beauty, the Washington Post saw the film in the “proud tradition” of ethnographic masterpieces, and Screen International maintained that it possessed “all the qualities to melt the hardest heart and become a cult item.” Davaa’s graduation film at the HFF/M, The Cave of the Yellow Dog (Die Hoehle des gelben Hundes, 2005) could thus be sold in numerous countries in advance of its premiere. This semi-fictional feature about a young nomad girl, her dog and a Mongolian legend had its world premiere at the Munich Film Festival this summer – where it not only won the Audience Award, but also the coveted German Film Promotion Award. A MEDIATOR BETWEEN TWO WORLDS A portrait of Byambasuren Davaa A unique success story: within five years, Byambasuren Davaa has made it from her home amidst the steppes of Central Asia, via Germany, to Hollywood and two OSCAR nominations – meaning that as a film student, she has already achieved something that others work for all their lives. But in fact, as the petite, energetic director emphasizes in our conversation, it is not her nature to plan things: “I don’t PR Agent: ana radica ! Presse Organisation Herzog-Wilhelm-Strasse 27 · 80331 Munich/Germany phone +49-89-23 66 12-0 · fax +49-89-23 66 12 20 email: kontakt@ana-radica-presse.com www.ana-radica-presse.com need security – not as a person, nor as a filmmaker. For I know it doesn’t exist, anyway. I always react to a situation and try to remain open to anything.” It was probably this openness that gave the director, born in Mongolia, the courage to transfer from the film academy of her home town Ulan german films quarterly director’s portrait 4 · 2005 12
Bator to the Munich Academy of Television and Film (HFF/M) in the year 2000, although she couldn’t speak a word of German. In the meantime, she speaks the language – perfectly – and remembers: “At that time, I arrived at the main station in Munich, spent a night in the waiting room, and began looking for an apartment the next day. That is my mentality: I just go somewhere and see what happens.” She made her second film at the HFF/M, The Story of the Weeping Camel, together with fellow student Luigi Falorni. This poetic documentary describes an ancient ritual carried out by the nomadic herders of Southern Mongolia when one of their new-born camels is rejected by its mother: enchanting musical sounds are performed to make the mother camel weep – and so induce her to suckle her offspring again. After a difficult research trip covering thousands of kilometers, the two filmmakers finally found a suitable family of nomads in the Gobi Desert. And at the end of seven strenuous weeks of shooting, during the musical ceremony, the mother camel actually did weep. The struggle and strain were worth it, and The Story of the Weeping Camel became a hit with audiences worldwide. In Germany alone, more than 300,000 were delighted by the unusual combination of authentic documentary shots and moving feature-film plot. The film sold in more than 80 countries and has received numerous international awards. The crowing triumph: a nomination for the OSCAR for Best Documentary. It is by no means coquettish, but honest amazement and modesty which Davaa voices when she reviews this overwhelming response to her film: “Wherever I presented the film, whether in the USA or France, in Japan or Norway – every time, I was utterly astonished at how positively the audiences reacted to it!” It is possible that Davaa will repeat this success with her new film, The Cave of the Yellow Dog, her graduation film from the HFF/M, which had its much-acclaimed world premiere at this year’s festival in Munich and has been submitted for the OSCAR for Best Foreign Language Film. Again, Davaa takes her viewers to Mongolia – this time not into the Gobi Desert, but the steppes of the North West. From a documentary viewpoint, it tells the fictive story of a girl from a tribe of herdsmen and a stray dog – and at the same time, it grants us a fascinating insight into the life of the nomads, which is characterized by their great respect for nature. Davaa attempted to treat the family of herdsmen with the same kind of respect: “German film teams always want to have everything thoroughly organized – but the people in Mongolia live in an entirely different fashion,” she relates. “That is why I made an effort to adapt myself and the crew to the nomads and to integrate us into the way of life there: for two months, we actually lived together with the family and all took the necessary time to get to know each other. We didn’t begin the shooting until we had developed that trust.” Davaa does not gloss over or romanticize anything in her film; she never falls prey to the temptation of ethno-kitsch, but portrays a society in a process of change: “I wanted to capture the traditional nomadic culture as long as it still exists,” she says. “I realize that there is no way of halting modernization. And I wouldn’t want to condemn that development wholesale, either. What I would like is for the old and the new to learn from one another, and for people to go on living their lives on an equal footing. But each viewer ought to draw his own conclusions from my film.” She herself learned not only traditional, but also modern values during her childhood – and she freely admits that she has happily accepted the advantages and opportunities of western life: “After five years in Munich, I feel like part of both worlds.” She can therefore imagine making her next film in Germany: “People fascinate me. All over the world. Every person has his story. I certainly wouldn’t want to exclude the possibility of finding the material for my next film in Munich.” The “developing filmmaker”, as she describes herself, takes her hat off to her German colleagues: films like Grill Point, The Edukators and Sophie Scholl – The Final Days impressed her considerably, but she also admires documentaries such as Rhythm Is It! and Addicted to Acting. “I think the things that are happening in the documentary field are very interesting,” she remarks, “and of course I am glad that documentary films are becoming so popular again. Ten years ago, my films would probably have had no chance – at that time, it was mainly a matter of always pulling out the stops when it came to technical and special effects. I think people want to come back down to earth today: they are very interested in reality – but TV only offers them socalled reality shows such as Big Brother and Super Nanny. Byambasuren Davaa presents a successful alternative to this artificial TV-reality with her own films. However, her film language – located somewhere between feature film and documentary – evades any form of categorization. “Basically, I suppose, I don’t think in genres,” the 34-year-old director sums up, “and I don’t want to explain everything dutifully in my films, either. This fixation on the mediation of knowledge seems like a typical Western European characteristic to me. Of course, I also satisfy people’s thirst for knowledge in a certain sense – but subtly and with no claim to the absolute. My films are intended to be felt: an experience for all the senses rather than just for the mind!” Marco Schmidt (freelance journalist for print and television) spoke to Byambasuren Davaa german films quarterly director’s portrait 4 · 2005 13
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