Category: Opening film
Language: Mongolian
Director: Jean-Jacques Annaud
Running time: 121 minutes
They say, if you stare unwaveringly into the eyes of an animal, it reads your strength and backs off. Putting the veracity of that saying on hold, let’s just say that on 3D, the stare game is as ominous as it can get.
The opening film at IFFK 2015, Wolf Totem seemingly plays with the idea of a man-beast relationship, but it charts out more routes to explore.
The year is 1967. Chen Zhen (Shaofeng Feng), a young student from Beijing, comes to inner Mongolia to teach Mongolian language to the local tribe. In arctic temperature, he watches the herdsmen, who know the place like the back of their hand. Wolves are revered creatures for them, and with a wolf-shaped wind sail-like territory marker, their significance in the lives of the tribe becomes more than evident.
A sort of character study of the pack is underway when Chen Zhen narrowly escapes an attack. It tells of the intelligence of the wolves that the tribe has to cope with to live around them. The film details the growing awe of the young man towards the animal, and how the tribe looks at the wolves and identifies with them, wilfully letting the ways of the pack reflect in theirs, playing the roguish game of survival. The man-wolf relationship widens the horizon to look at man (Chinese) to man (Mongolian Chinese) associations.
The chasm between the Chinese government and the many Mongolian tribes echoes in many a frameChen Zhen entertains the idea of taming a cub amid the government decree of culling wolf cubs to cut down their numbers. When man battles it out with natural order, what becomes the outcome?
While the movie draws a sturdy picture of the lifestyle of the tribe that thrives on myth, wisdom of the experienced and instinct, it connects these with nodes that impacts their lives.
Deftly pinning up the Mongolian politics in a frame, the head herdsman says that hardly anyone in the village knows the language. Placed in times of the Cultural Revolution in China, the chasm between the Chinese government and the many Mongolian tribes echo in many a frame, though the politics of it seem terse.
While the movie draws a sturdy picture of the lifestyle of the tribe, it connects these with nodes that impacts their livesIn great 3D view, the wolves come alive on screen, and it’s as though one can read their thoughts, their plan for vengeance and their helplessness. Man-beast-man affiliations poke open many sleeping thoughts that revolve around growing urbanisation and cultures succumbing to commercialisation; a new age is looked upon with awe and puzzlement, just like how you encounter a beast and understand its ways.
Star factors: Fantastic 3D effects, that’s where your money goes. From scenic landscapes to the magnificent pack of wolves, it’s a big thumbs up. The fact that it isn’t CGI, but camera shots makes it a stupendous effort.
Shaofeng Feng and the wolf cub. The actor and his portrayal of the evolving relationship with a cub are a delight to watch.
Encore, the majestic wolf pack!
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