cover 4_05-gfq.RV - German Films
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Byambasuren Davaa (photo courtesy of X Verleih)<br />
DIRECTOR’S PORTRAIT<br />
Byambasuren Davaa was born in the Mongolian capital<br />
Ulan Bator in 1971. From 1989 to 1994, she worked for<br />
Mongolian State Television as a presenter and assistant director;<br />
parallel to this, in 1993, she began a two-year course in<br />
Law at the university of her home town. She then began to<br />
study at the College of Cinematic Art in Ulan Bator in 1998.<br />
Two years later, she moved to <strong>German</strong>y to continue her studies<br />
in the Department of Documentary Film at the Academy of<br />
Television and Film (HFF/M) in Munich. Only her second film at<br />
the HFF/M, The Story of the Weeping Camel (Die<br />
Geschichte vom weinenden Kamel, 2003), which she<br />
realized together with her fellow student Luigi Falorni, became<br />
one of the most successful cinema documentaries of recent<br />
years: this film about an ancient ritual among Mongolian<br />
nomads was sold in around 80 countries and enthusiastically<br />
greeted by millions of cinema viewers all over the world. It has<br />
also won numerous international prizes – including Audience<br />
Awards at the festivals in Karlovy Vary, Indianapolis and Buenos<br />
Aires. In addition, it was nominated for an OSCAR in the category<br />
Best Documentary Film. Newsweek praised the director<br />
for her outstanding awareness of natural beauty, the<br />
Washington Post saw the film in the “proud tradition” of ethnographic<br />
masterpieces, and Screen International maintained that it<br />
possessed “all the qualities to melt the hardest heart and become<br />
a cult item.” Davaa’s graduation film at the HFF/M, The<br />
Cave of the Yellow Dog (Die Hoehle des gelben<br />
Hundes, 20<strong>05</strong>) could thus be sold in numerous countries in<br />
advance of its premiere. This semi-fictional feature about a<br />
young nomad girl, her dog and a Mongolian legend had its world<br />
premiere at the Munich Film Festival this summer – where it not<br />
only won the Audience Award, but also the coveted <strong>German</strong> Film<br />
Promotion Award.<br />
A MEDIATOR BETWEEN<br />
TWO WORLDS<br />
A portrait of Byambasuren Davaa<br />
A unique success story: within five years, Byambasuren Davaa<br />
has made it from her home amidst the steppes of Central Asia, via<br />
<strong>German</strong>y, to Hollywood and two OSCAR nominations – meaning that<br />
as a film student, she has already achieved something that others work<br />
for all their lives. But in fact, as the petite, energetic director emphasizes<br />
in our conversation, it is not her nature to plan things: “I don’t<br />
PR Agent: ana radica ! Presse Organisation<br />
Herzog-Wilhelm-Strasse 27 · 80331 Munich/<strong>German</strong>y<br />
phone +49-89-23 66 12-0 · fax +49-89-23 66 12 20<br />
email: kontakt@ana-radica-presse.com<br />
www.ana-radica-presse.com<br />
need security – not as a person, nor as a filmmaker. For I know it<br />
doesn’t exist, anyway. I always react to a situation and try to remain<br />
open to anything.”<br />
It was probably this openness that gave the director, born in Mongolia,<br />
the courage to transfer from the film academy of her home town Ulan<br />
german films quarterly director’s portrait<br />
4 · 20<strong>05</strong> 12