Legendary documentarian Robert J. Flaherty (“Nanook of the North”) once said his primary ambition as a filmmak-er was to “show how a rose smells.” In the delightful “The Story of the Weeping Camel,” fresh talents Byambasuren Davaa and Luigi Falorni channel the spirit of Flaherty, whose work was a major inspiration to this project, delivering an ethereal treasure that inspires all of the senses.
Set in the vast, remote Gobi Desert of Mongolia — one of the last undefiled places on earth still capable of stirring the imagination — “Weeping Camel” follows a real family of nomadic herders who face a crisis when a mother camel rejects her newborn calf after a particularly difficult birth. The herders, several generations strong, employ a number of methods to coax the mother into nursing the baby, eventually summoning a violinist to assist an ancient ritual that, if successful, will not only save the calf, but bring the mother camel to tears.
Audiences will weep as well, as the soul of this magically simplistic film is as stirring as the visuals. And if they awarded golden statuettes to the hoofed ruminants of the family Camelidae (look it up, people), well, the little white calf would be a shoe-in to take home the hardware. (Rated PG for some mild thematic content. Running time: 90 minutes)
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on June 18, 2004. Read the original PDF.