Zud
Director: Marta Minorowicz
Writer: Marta Minorowicz, Kenneth McBride
Cast: Batsaikhan Budee, Sukhbat Batsaikhan, Bayasgalan Batsaikhan, Bayajikh Batsaikhan, Baljinnyam Nyam-Ochir, Sosorbaram Mungunsan
Seen on: 3.1.2025

Content Note: animal cruelty

Plot:
On a small farm in Mongolia’s Steppe, winter has struck hard and 11-year-old Sukhbat (Sukhbat Batsaikhan) had to leave school to help out. His father (Batsaikhan Budee) tasks him with taming a wild horse and preparing it for a local race. The price money could make a lot of difference for the family. Sukhbat gets to work, but things may be easier said than done.

Zud lies somewhere between documentary and fiction, combining elements of both. As much as you can separate the two, the documentary parts work reasonably well, the fictional parts had me squirming in my seat with their sense of impending doom.

I am sure that living on the Mongolian Steppe is harsh, and in harsh surroundings, people tend to get harsh, too. That is certainly the case for Sukhbat and his family. They find little time for warmth and tenderness between them. This coldness is emphasized by the literal coldness of the weather and the treatment of the animals that is functionalistic and often cruel. I can imagine that this is just the way it is, but to my European sensibilities, it was nevertheless jarring to see how both Sukhbat and the animals are treated (and how Sukhbat treats the animals in turn).

With a documentarian appraoch, Minorowicz watches the events unfold at a distance. She still manages to capture a sense of dread and doom. We, the audience, know pretty quickly that none of this can end well. But this sense of hopelessness feels reductionary and begs the question why we should watch it all unfold when it is so clear that trouble will continue coming?

I don’t mean that I would have liked a (certainly jarring) sudden happy end, but in all the gloom, the film loses sight of its characters and that even if they don’t seem to care for each other, we should care about them. That is exceedingly hard when we remain at this much distance and only ever catch glimpses of their inner life. And when everything feels kind of pointless, because not even the characters really believe that anything could change.

There is some gorgeous cinematography here and definitely some interesting moments, but the film would have profited from a clearer direction or a choice between documentary or fictional film, I think. Like this it feels neither here, nor there, just depressing.

Summarizing: might still be worth seeing, but maybe with a bit of comfort food and sunlight around.