City of Wind

Lkhagvadulam Purev-Ochir's 2024 Mongolian film follows Ze, seventeen. He works to succeed at school and is at the same time a young shaman the community turns to; he keeps the two lives from mixing. Meeting Maralaa upsets that balance. Ze begins to question his own belief in what he says during the rites; the narrative gives this not as a crisis of faith but as part of adolescence. It is the director's first feature. The apartment blocks and the tent districts of Ulaanbaatar appear in the same frames; the images are cold and the camera generally keeps its distance. The cast is largely non-professional. Who it's for: those who like Central Asian cinema and adolescent drama. Who it's not for: viewers expecting to be informed about shamanism; the film shows the rite without explaining it.