State of Dogs

12/5/2013

The trilogy that started off with an experimental documentary continues with a brilliant film that captures the life and death of Bassar, a stray dog. Shot gorgeously in the arid but harshly romantic Mongolia, this one was an awesome watch. I am tempted to draw parallels with Au Hasard Balthazar, which is one of my most favorite movies, from the perspective as how the movie becomes not so much about Balthazar or Bassar, but much more about the people around them, in this case the country around Bassar too. A very important phase of Mongolian history is captured, when the Soviets left their country and democracy was declared, through the memories and musings of Bassar’s spirit. As the first part, this one too is structured around a fable, and does a fluent job is combining the fable with th