A peek into the pasture: A film review of The Cave of the Yellow Dog
By Prajakta Kulkarni
The Cave of the Yellow Dog opens up a window into the lives of a pastoral family living in the Mongolian meadows. Astute framing of shots and simple camera movements offer us a candid glimpse into the lives and surroundings of the Batchuluun family.
The film threads the beauty of their simple life and their hardships together, portraying the Batchuluun family with authenticity and nuance. Most of the film is from young Nansal’s perspective, which is full of innocent curiosity. She walks with sure steps, reaches out to what catches her eyes and if she stumbles, she gets back up again. Her naivete leaves little room for pretences. When she returns from her city boarding school, Nansal quickly adjusts to life on the meadows. She is adept at navigating the landscape, often venturing out on her own to collect dung or take her family’s herd out to graze. She forms deep connections with the animals around her, particularly with an abandoned dog she finds in a cave. As she wanders with the animals, sometimes getting lost without much of a worry, Nansal seems content.
The viewer also finds peace in the slow pacing of the film and the charming shots of the family’s natural surroundings. On the other hand, the difficulties that Nansal’s family faces are not ignored either. Prowling wolves takes two of the family’s sheep and conversations reveal that people are selling their herds to move to the city. In one scene, Nansal stacks dried dung to recreate her memory of city buildings and proclaims, “ I will live on the top floor of this stack one day!”
Towards the end of the film, we see the Batchuluun family packing up their lives on wooden carts. As they prepare to leave, Nansal’s parents discuss leaving her at a relative’s house so she can continue her education. It is a poignant glimpse into the lives of pastoral communities today, who wish to find a balance between upholding their culture and keeping up with the ever-changing society.
Layer by layer they peel their yurt, a round tent that serves as a temporary house, down to its bones. Before we know it, the picture of their quaint home that we’d grown used to seeing is gone and all that is left is a patch of bare land. Now that we see their house folded and packed on carts, we see that they leave almost nothing behind. A nod to the simple and sustainable life that they live, bereft of excessive consumption.
In a short period, the Cave of the Yellow Dog opens up a world of possibilities for the viewer — a world where stagnancy doesn’t exist and hope is always around the corner. In times of fast cars and faster lives perhaps we need to slow down and take a look at our surroundings to find our silver linings.
Prajakta Kulkarni is a Communication Designer with a penchant for writing. She spends her free time indulging in a plethora of movies, series and K- dramas.
