User Reviews

Overall, this may not be that memorable a film, but one scene certainly is one I doubt you'll ever forget. I mean, how many of us have seen a camel give birth? Not only that, but labor for two days to get the young "colt" out, and then do it standing up? It's a very dramatic, intense five-minute scene, one I won't soon forget.

For most of this film, however, not much happens yet it does have a certain appeal. I had read how fantastic the scenery was but, outside of the snow-capped mountains in the background, the terrain is flat and totally bleak. Living in this vast desert is almost depressing. Imagine living in that barren land year after year? For the family featured in this film, it didn't seem bad. They didn't know any other way of life and they seemed quite content.

However, as we see near the end of the movie, not everyone in that area lives in a sturdy tent and raises sheep and camels. There is a store miles away and schools and music and dance classes, etc. The little boy in featured family is awed when he sees a television set. He wants one, of course. The grandpa tells the boy he'd just sit around and watch TV all day and that would be bad.

In the end, though, the movie concludes with a shot of a huge satellite dish outside the tent! The story is basically about how the family figures out who to get the mother camel to nurse its young one and, yes, there is a happy ending.

Summary: a likable film but you must be patient with it.

''Die Geschichte vom weinenden Kamel'' is told to be a ''documentary'', but I don't get exactly what is the purpose of it. It shows the story of a nomadic family and the troubles they have with a camel and her offspring, since the mother refuses to give maternal love to her baby. And that's it. More then one hour only watching camels, the desert, and part of the nomadic family's life. Don't get me wrong, the cinematography is beautiful and I do enjoy watching different movies from the ones from Hollywood, specially when all the people in this movie were real and not actors, but where is the plot of watching this movie? That's what I don't really get.

I found interesting, however,the ritual with music they did for the mother camel accept her baby back. I would love to see a research about that, because I've never heard about music healing an animal's trauma.

The movie is not bad, only without purpose.

The Story of the Weeping Camel is one of the best movies that I've ever seen and easily the best of 2004 (I know that it was released in 2003, but it is only just making the rounds). It is evocative, provocative, sweet and highly appealing without ANY sex or violence. Just a jewel, as was my last favorite Mongolian film, Close to Eden. The characters are all realistic. The storyline works even if a breach-birth camel is just dumb luck. Maybe a lot of camels are rejected after birth. Or maybe the producers sprayed something on the camel to ward off his mother. Whatever it was, it works. The camel's expressions, both mother and calf, are priceless! A very entertaining two hours without a lot of dialog so even if you're not a fan of sub-titled movies, it is still easy to enjoy.

My only familiarity with this remote part of the world came from an interesting 2001 PBS special that Julia Roberts did on the horsemen of Mongolia's Gobi Desert. Apparently in their midst are nomadic families who raise sheep and camels for their daily livelihood. I have to admit it takes a while for this 2004 documentary to establish its purpose beyond its exotic setting, but once the drama begins to surface with a camel's rejection of her newborn baby, it becomes subtly, inextricably involving in spotlighting the true-life drama of the family's dilemma in trying to reconnect mother and child with the white calf's death the obvious outcome otherwise. Done in a way that reminds me of the fictionalized documentaries of Robert Flaherty I saw in college film class years ago ("Nanook of the North" and "Louisiana Story" among others), co-directors Luigi Falorni and Byambasuren Davaa take a similar approach in restaging the drama for the camera, and like Flaherty's work, it all feels authentic and respectful of the locals' way of life.

Living in clean, nicely decorated hut-like "yerts" on the scrub-filled plain, the four generations of the central family exist simply but with a strong sense of unspoken bonding and respect for the animals they raise. Rather than focusing on their isolation, the filmmakers show how the family is touched by the modern world, which crystallizes with the adventurous journey that the two boys, Dude and Ugna, take to a nearby village to retrieve a native musician to play a song of enlightenment to the mother camel. In one of the more lighthearted episodes, with a sly nod to Yasujiro Ozu's "Good Morning", the younger one is particularly taken with the television sets he encounters.

The scenes with the camels reflect the realism of a National Geographic special, no surprise since they are involved intimately in the production, with the birthing and the magical climax (which gives the film its title) particularly affecting. Most surprising is how the filmmakers make the seemingly mundane activities of the family glow with an uncontrived sense of warmth and poignancy. Special mention needs to go to Falorni's masterful camera-work. While it doesn't attain the magical depth of Luc Jacquet's "March of the Penguins", probably because some of the staging does make itself self-evident, this one is still definitely worth viewing. Other than a photo gallery, there are really no extras with the DVD package.

A documentary that takes place in the Gobi Desert about a mother camel rejecting her newborn white calf may not sound like compelling drama--or dromedary--but the makers of The Story of the Weeping Camel are to be commended for a beautiful, haunting film that left a deeper impression with me than many of the Hollywood blockbusters.

This works on so many levels--as a nature documentary worthy of National Geographic, which was involved in its making; as a look at a far-away culture and in particular the simple joys and difficulties of one Mongolian family; and as a study of Western influences in other continents as the two young boys journey and discover modern innovations such as TV and computer games.

Most of all, it works as a tale of hope and faith as mother camel and calf try to bond. Anyone who isn't moved by the image of the violinist playing as the mother finally accepts her calf, should check out of the human race.

A marvelous film!

This is an amazing documentary! It's very real, very authentic, and gives the viewer an intimate look into the lives of a Mongolian family, four generations, living on the edge of the Gobi desert, deriving life and existence from their animals, camels, sheep and goats. Although they seem primitive to us, they are very creative and accomplished in the task of survival in a very bare and isolated area. We see their close attachment to and understanding of their animals, and they take very seriously the difficult birth and later rejection of a white newborn by the brown mother. In nature, sometimes for obscure Darwinian reasons, the mother sometimes rejects the newborn offspring. Maybe it was the difficult and prolonged birth. Maybe it was the unusual white color of the colt.

The family tries every which way to get the mother to suckle the colt, but they are unsuccessful. They try ritual prayers. Finally they try a time-tested remedy, and that is a melody, more specifically, music from a medical musician, a particular specialist with the violin. Sure enough, after requesting the 'consultation,' the violinist comes with the indigenous violin, a primitive-looking two stringed instrument, but it produces soothing and mesmerizing music! This, together with the whole large family watching, the beautiful young woman stroking and singing, brings about the desired result. The mother is actually weeping and allowing its offspring to suckle! It seems like a miracle, but also very natural. How did the Mongolian family come to this wisdom?

We cannot help but identify as human beings, with some mothers rejecting their babies. Sometimes healing interventions bring about rapproachment. Sometimes it is an extended family and sometimes it is therapy. Psychotherapists have something to learn from watching this extraordinary film closely and deeply. What we see is something at the core of the human condition. This documentary will be understood by bright children as well as perceptive and intelligent adults.

I've been there. In fact the initial fun of watching this film with my family was recognizing the location because of the background mountains. I go to Mongolia nearly every summer to do historical research and also for the fun of it. . .it is indeed one of the most beautiful places in the world, and inhabited by the most wondrous of people.

Part documentary, part drama, I found this film to be a real reflection of so many families that I've met over there, have camped with, have ridden with. The close bond of children, parents, and grandparents is a lesson I wish our culture would relearn. . .and yes I cringed at the very end when the two boys are setting up the television dish. I had an identical experience in the far north of the country, in Hosvgol Province, featured a couple of years back in National Geographic. My buddy and I rode up to a ger (yurt...tent) and within the entire family was glued to the flickering "glass image," the traditional hospitality and greetings all but gone. We were offered the traditional milk tea, milk curds and some aureg (fermented milk) but then everyone turned back to the screen. Story telling, sharing photographs of families, talking about children, legends, horse races, life in America, life there. . .was gone, as all turned back to watch the flickering screen, ourselves included. How I wanted to scream out, and yet who am I, with my own wide screen box, to beg them not to fall into the trap.

But back to the film review. It is beautifully photographed, I actually sat there teary eyed at points, remembering my own travels. The storm scenes. . .if only you could feel and smell it. It is like you are being nailed by a sand blaster, the smell has a static electric feel to it, and frankly, after a day or so makes you feel a bit crazy, I did not blame that little girl at all for crying. . .and it also ruins your camera equipment unless you seal everything in zip lock bags. (I've lost two cameras and two camcorders there due to weather.) One detail I noticed was the cameraman filming with his back to the wind. If he had turned the camera into the wind, it would have blasted the lens within seconds. Just to capture it at all on film was quite a feat. Two of my trips over there, we had a documentary team with us, and both times their equipment failed within days. So the team that made this film. . .just from the technical logistical side, an amazing feat.

The music, well in the film it is captivating, haunting, and believe me, to hear the songs again. . .yet another teary eyed moment for me, remembering sitting under a star studded sky and hearing the same songs while the bowl of fermented milk goes back and forth, and then we guests sing our songs in reply (fortunately my one friend does doo-op and our Mongolian friends just adored "The Lion Sleeps Tonight," I did that darn wena-wop line as his back up every night til it drove me crazy! And wherever we traveled, word of us raced ahead and wherever we stopped our new found nomad friends would ask "sing Lion song!" Drove me crazy!) Yet again, back to the film. I just wish there was more of their traditional music, it is wondrous, haunting. Do notice in particular the scene where the musican first hangs his two string fiddle on the camel's hump and then let's the wind "play it." Nearly all traditional mongolian music is a reflection of natural sounds, right down to differences of the wind on the desert versus grasslands or the forest, and in the northern regions the "beat" is almost always that of horse hooves. There is another documentary out there on throat singers, I can't remember the title, but do try and see it.

But back to the film again. Wonderful, delightful, share it with your kids, and afterwards do think about it. I am by no means a technophobe or "back to the land" type, but within this film is a statement about how to live our lives. . .and for that lesson alone I go back there every year.

William Forstchen History Professor Montreat College

The title of this documentary from Mongolia is not a metaphor - there is an actual weeping camel in the movie. Directed by a Mongolian woman and an Italian man who met as students at a German film school and set in the Mongolian steppe, the plot is slight and the directing style is somewhat artless, yet the story is charming and interesting. After a difficult delivery, a mother camel refuses to nurse her young. The camel owners (nomadic Mongolian shepherds, living in a ger in the steppe) send their two children to the city in order to get a violinist to convince the camel, through music, to feed her baby. And the movie allows us to see a particular civilization that is increasingly encroached by the modern world (one of the movie's most poignant scenes had the children demanding their father for a television).