Tuya’s Marriage

Colour, 35 mm
China, 2007, 96 min
Section: Horizons

Synopsis

In Inner Mongolia, which covers 12% of the area of China, the Mongols constitute the largest ethnic group. “My mother was born not far from the places where I filmed my movie. That’s why I have always liked Mongols, their way of life, and their music. When I heard that massive industrial expansion was changing the pastures there into deserts and that local authorities were forcing Mongolian herdsmen out of their homeland, I decided to make a film that would record their way of life before it disappears forever,“ says the director. The heroine of this innocent love story is a Mongolian woman named Tuya, who takes care of the household, two small children, and her paralysed husband, collects the water, and minds the flock of sheep that is their livelihood. The unending toil begins to show on their health however, and Tuya faces the question of how to continue to provide for the family’s existence. This remarkable film, awarded with a Golden Bear at this year’s Berlin IFF, tells an unconventional love story from the lives of Mongolian herdsmen.

About the director

Wang Quan’an (1965, Yan’an, China) graduated from the Film Academy of Beijing. He is a filmmaker who devotes a great deal of attention to the social realities accompanying the transformations in his country. His first film Yue shi (Lunar Eclipse, 1999), which he wrote the screenplay for and directed, won the FIPRESCI Award at the Moscow IFF in 2000. This was followed by Jing zhe (The Story of Ermei, 2004), which was shown at the festival in Paris. His third movie, Tuya’s Marriage (Tuya de hun shi, 2006), which he also scripted, took the Golden Bear and the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury at this year’s IFF in Berlin.