Bunny with an axe (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} bunnywithanaxe) wrote,@ 2005-11-23 20:54:00 |
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The Story of the Weeping Camel.
If you haven't seen this one, do. It's in the Foreign Film section-- it's a film from Mongolia, and is a semi-documentary. I really want to look up details on the production and find out just how much is straight documentry.
It kind of reminds me of the Iranian film "The White Baloon"-- a sort of overview of an entire culture held together by one maddening cliffhanger. The culture in this case is that of nomads in the Gobi desert--the cliffhanger is a piss-mean, rebellious Bactrian (two-humped) she-camel and her baby. The mother, for whatever reason, does not bond with the baby camel, and refuses to nurse. While the bulk of the film is about the camel-herders themselves, the little family and their expanded tribe, everybody in the film is concerned with the families efforts to reunite mother and child.
The first scene where the mother rejects the baby is viscerally jolting. I was angry at the stupid beast. Never mind that it is just an animal, not to mention one of verifiably nastiest animals on the planet, never mind that there might be some physical issue that is holding the mother back, I hate her. The nomad-wife gently leads the baby to the mother's udder, the mother dodges. The wife tries again, the mother kicks her hind leg to dislodge the baby. The wife leads the baby around to touch noses with the mother, and the mother curls back her lips and gnaws the baby's neck. Finally Wife gives up and lets Mother wander away. Baby is then left to halfheartedly trot towards the retreating mother,keening eerily.
The keening is pretty much the soundtrack--the baby's cries dominate the ambiance in most of the scenes. It is wailing and tonal, a high-pitched cry that follows a descent in the universal pattern of vocal misery.It defies what I just wrote about the principles in this drama being "just animals" Again, the viscera is indignant-- how could any female mammal of any species hear that awful sound and ignore it?or walk away form it? The sounds from the mother are mainly grunts of irritation, or threatening growls as the humans try to manipulate the situation.
Wife finally ties Mother's leg down, and tightly muzzles her snout. It's pretty gratifying, but they have to let Baby go before he is finished,or else Mom will go ballistic. Baby never experiences a sensation of fullness. Every once in a while the camera man catches streams of moisture coursing from the Baby's eyes.If they are not tears,they sure are a spooky imitation.
One of the children of the nomad family comes across Wife trying to supplement the now-staggering Baby's feed by giving him extra she's milked from Mom through a skin bottle. The son asks Wife "If the mother does not feed the baby camel will it die?"
"What a question!" rebukes Wife. But she doesn't answer.
Finally the tribe musicians are enlisted to solve the problem. The remedy seem to lie in strapping a viola-type instrument to the mother camel's hump,and allowing her own moans of discomfort at this burden to resonate with the strings. This somehow hypnotises her. No shit, it really calms her down quickly.
Once she is settled, one of the musicians takes the viola down again and starts playing it with abow. The mother moans in sympathy with the strains coming from the instrument, Off in the background the baby camel is tied to a stake, practically wrenching his leg off in an attempt to reach the mother. Mother keeps moaning. The camera man catches the setting sun on the mother's face, again, those weird "tears" appear to stream form the animal's eyes.Her moans sound like a deeper, adult version of the baby's. They join voices, and finally somebody lets the baby loose and leads him forward.
The mother stands perfectly still as the baby walks over and begins to nurse. The viola plays.The mother moans, and turns to awkwardly nuzzle Baby. Wife, stroking Mother, begins to sing a simple chant, light and high and sweet. The other camels stop grazing and stare at the proceedings, as if commanded to do so.After a while the music falls silent and the humans watch peacefully as the baby drinks.
Wife remarks,"Finally, she let the baby nurse." Pause. "At last he'll be full."
They all nod, then get up and leave. Their lack of astonishment is astonishing.Of couse my mod'ren, scientific mind screams: how the hell did they know that would work?? What convolutions of oral tradition passed this one along? What accident of fate made them discover this trick???
The cliffhanger solved, the story should be over. But when the humans walk way, the camera stays with the principles, Mother and Baby. It's the most heartbreaking, powerful, important scene in the film.
Baby is pretty much done, is not keening anymore--actually, he looks pretty damn chipper--and is sort of hanging around Mother as one would expect a camel that has been kicked by his mother since birth to hang around-- close enough to enjoy the proximity, but far enough away not to invite abuse. But this time, it is the mother who is providing the soundtrack-- the moaning that started in the music performance never stops. It's as if all those weeks of detachment from her calf are falling upon her,and she is mourning the seperation that just ended.Would it be too weird and anthropomorphic to use the word "regret"? Or "penitant"? In any case, the animal is clearly grieving. The wailing is serving some mysterious animalia cathartic purpose,and Mother vents her feelings loudly.
At some point Baby seems to realize all this caterwauling is about him, so he comes back to nurse, thought clearly not enthused. Mother continues to cry, nuzzling the haunches of the baby. Baby, I guess expecting a bite, skitters back, then again seems to recognize the gesture as friendly and trots forward.It is just small enough to run right under Mom and tickle her tummy with his humps. Mom nuzzles and the wailing subsides.She can'tseen to get enough of the colt, nozing its head, neck, humps. The two animals go from nuzzling to gently frolicking, the sounds go from keening to something more turtledovey, and the sun literally sets on the mother and calf rejoicing in the universal mammalian refreshment of skin on skin.
What could I possibly add to that? Except GO RENT IT.
If you haven't seen this one, do. It's in the Foreign Film section-- it's a film from Mongolia, and is a semi-documentary. I really want to look up details on the production and find out just how much is straight documentry.
It kind of reminds me of the Iranian film "The White Baloon"-- a sort of overview of an entire culture held together by one maddening cliffhanger. The culture in this case is that of nomads in the Gobi desert--the cliffhanger is a piss-mean, rebellious Bactrian (two-humped) she-camel and her baby. The mother, for whatever reason, does not bond with the baby camel, and refuses to nurse. While the bulk of the film is about the camel-herders themselves, the little family and their expanded tribe, everybody in the film is concerned with the families efforts to reunite mother and child.
The first scene where the mother rejects the baby is viscerally jolting. I was angry at the stupid beast. Never mind that it is just an animal, not to mention one of verifiably nastiest animals on the planet, never mind that there might be some physical issue that is holding the mother back, I hate her. The nomad-wife gently leads the baby to the mother's udder, the mother dodges. The wife tries again, the mother kicks her hind leg to dislodge the baby. The wife leads the baby around to touch noses with the mother, and the mother curls back her lips and gnaws the baby's neck. Finally Wife gives up and lets Mother wander away. Baby is then left to halfheartedly trot towards the retreating mother,keening eerily.
The keening is pretty much the soundtrack--the baby's cries dominate the ambiance in most of the scenes. It is wailing and tonal, a high-pitched cry that follows a descent in the universal pattern of vocal misery.It defies what I just wrote about the principles in this drama being "just animals" Again, the viscera is indignant-- how could any female mammal of any species hear that awful sound and ignore it?or walk away form it? The sounds from the mother are mainly grunts of irritation, or threatening growls as the humans try to manipulate the situation.
Wife finally ties Mother's leg down, and tightly muzzles her snout. It's pretty gratifying, but they have to let Baby go before he is finished,or else Mom will go ballistic. Baby never experiences a sensation of fullness. Every once in a while the camera man catches streams of moisture coursing from the Baby's eyes.If they are not tears,they sure are a spooky imitation.
One of the children of the nomad family comes across Wife trying to supplement the now-staggering Baby's feed by giving him extra she's milked from Mom through a skin bottle. The son asks Wife "If the mother does not feed the baby camel will it die?"
"What a question!" rebukes Wife. But she doesn't answer.
Finally the tribe musicians are enlisted to solve the problem. The remedy seem to lie in strapping a viola-type instrument to the mother camel's hump,and allowing her own moans of discomfort at this burden to resonate with the strings. This somehow hypnotises her. No shit, it really calms her down quickly.
Once she is settled, one of the musicians takes the viola down again and starts playing it with abow. The mother moans in sympathy with the strains coming from the instrument, Off in the background the baby camel is tied to a stake, practically wrenching his leg off in an attempt to reach the mother. Mother keeps moaning. The camera man catches the setting sun on the mother's face, again, those weird "tears" appear to stream form the animal's eyes.Her moans sound like a deeper, adult version of the baby's. They join voices, and finally somebody lets the baby loose and leads him forward.
The mother stands perfectly still as the baby walks over and begins to nurse. The viola plays.The mother moans, and turns to awkwardly nuzzle Baby. Wife, stroking Mother, begins to sing a simple chant, light and high and sweet. The other camels stop grazing and stare at the proceedings, as if commanded to do so.After a while the music falls silent and the humans watch peacefully as the baby drinks.
Wife remarks,"Finally, she let the baby nurse." Pause. "At last he'll be full."
They all nod, then get up and leave. Their lack of astonishment is astonishing.Of couse my mod'ren, scientific mind screams: how the hell did they know that would work?? What convolutions of oral tradition passed this one along? What accident of fate made them discover this trick???
The cliffhanger solved, the story should be over. But when the humans walk way, the camera stays with the principles, Mother and Baby. It's the most heartbreaking, powerful, important scene in the film.
Baby is pretty much done, is not keening anymore--actually, he looks pretty damn chipper--and is sort of hanging around Mother as one would expect a camel that has been kicked by his mother since birth to hang around-- close enough to enjoy the proximity, but far enough away not to invite abuse. But this time, it is the mother who is providing the soundtrack-- the moaning that started in the music performance never stops. It's as if all those weeks of detachment from her calf are falling upon her,and she is mourning the seperation that just ended.Would it be too weird and anthropomorphic to use the word "regret"? Or "penitant"? In any case, the animal is clearly grieving. The wailing is serving some mysterious animalia cathartic purpose,and Mother vents her feelings loudly.
At some point Baby seems to realize all this caterwauling is about him, so he comes back to nurse, thought clearly not enthused. Mother continues to cry, nuzzling the haunches of the baby. Baby, I guess expecting a bite, skitters back, then again seems to recognize the gesture as friendly and trots forward.It is just small enough to run right under Mom and tickle her tummy with his humps. Mom nuzzles and the wailing subsides.She can'tseen to get enough of the colt, nozing its head, neck, humps. The two animals go from nuzzling to gently frolicking, the sounds go from keening to something more turtledovey, and the sun literally sets on the mother and calf rejoicing in the universal mammalian refreshment of skin on skin.
What could I possibly add to that? Except GO RENT IT.
