The Wolves Always Come at Night
Climate change and desertification force a Mongolian herder and his family to move from the Gobi desert to the big city. The loss of their animals severs their connection with nature.
Festival IDFA
Location Rabozaal
Run time 116 minutes
Genre Film
Dutch premiere
The Wolves Always Come at Night
Climate change and the onslaught of desertification have been ravaging the lands of Mongolia. In the last years, hundreds of thousands of nomads have relocated from the countryside areas to urban Ger districts. Davaasuren and his wife Otgonzaya herd their animals in the Gobi desert just like the generations before them. But the volatile change in nature is putting their future at risk. When half of their herd dies in a dust storm they make the painful decision to move the family to the city.
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Director Gabrielle Brady uses some fictional elements to make tangible the richness of the life that is being lost. For Davaasuren and Otgonzaya, losing their animals means losing their identity. Their connection with nature has been severed. Davaasuren is going to work at a quarry, but he is troubled by the idea of breaking open the earth—is it even allowed? The only thing keeping the couple going is the hope of return. One day, maybe.
ABOUT IDFA
IDFA strives to strengthen the international documentary climate by focusing more than ever on documentary film as an art form. This focus includes documentary films with an original visual language or structure, films that show lesser-known cultures or are filmed from a non-Western perspective, and interactive or immersive documentaries that innovate the field.