Celestial Camel

On the Kalmyk steppe the father of a shepherd family sells their camel calf Altynka. The mother camel, Mara, runs off looking for her calf, and that loss is a serious one for the family. Bayir, the eldest son of the house, sets out alone to bring her back. The steppe is wide, the boy is small, the road is long. Yuri Feting's film is both a road story and a growing-up story. Bayir meets odd people along the way, learns some things, and is not the same child when he returns. The landscape, language and customs of Kalmykia are not decoration here but the subject itself. The telling is calm and fable-like; it looks like a children's film without being reduced to one.