Golden Bear Award Winner: Tuya's Marriage

Part ethnographic exploration of the impact that a Chinese Socio-Capitalist state has on an ancient Mongolian way of life and part romantic comedy of errors and misunderstandings, Tuya’s Marriage is a deliberately slow mediation on a way of life without a great deal of dramatic heft and some awkward transitions. It works when lingering on particularly arduous elements of a remote, nomadic lifestyle but stumbles when some of the more overwritten aspects—like an ex-classmate turned suitor and a missing son—unexpectedly find their way onto the screen.

Tuya's lifesyle takes a toll on her

After her husband, Batoer, becomes crippled while digging a well, Tuya (Yu Nan) is forced to take care of him and her two children, Sen’ge and Zhaya, while suffering through a regular regiment of sheepherding and grueling thirty kilometer treks to collect water and hay. It understandably starts to take a toll on her, which all culminates in an injury she suffers while helping her unhappily married and overly helpful neighbour, Shenge, out of a difficult situation.

Saddled with the realities of not being able to support her family, Tuya and Batoer pragmatically decide to divorce so that she can get remarried and have her family taken care of. A variety of unlikely suitors seek out Tuya but quickly back off when they realize that they will have to also take care of her invalid husband.

Yu Nan delivers a solid performance

The majority of the secondary characters throughout are Mongolian non-actors performing under their own name. It’s an interesting approach—as is the decision to film in Mandarin when the characters would logically be speaking Mongolian—but doesn’t detract from the overall quality of the film. Yu Nan capably carries the picture on her shoulders through forlorn glances and an understandably rigid demeanor.

While Tuya’s inability to see Shenge’s overt romantic pandering is slightly incongruous and confusing given her otherwise acute sensibilities, her capitalist approach to romance mixed with a familial obligation parallels the encroaching Chinese landscape effectively. She has only herself and her sheep to barter with and struggles to maintain her ideals while accepting economic realities and fundamentals.

Art House audiences should appreciate Tuya's Marriage

Being both flawed and successful in its aims, Tuya’s Marriage is inarguably interesting for a variety of reasons despite its inability to fully connect on an emotional level or flow naturally. Art house auds should appreciate it’s individuality but less patient viewers will stir in their seats somewhere around the fourth ten-minute camel-ride to pick up water or hay.

Read about another recent film festival award winner; Frozen River.

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