THE TWO HORSES OF GENGHIS KHAN Documentaries

Chahor·Tugchi, Hicheengui Sambuu, Chimed Dolgor “Old things must be destroyed so that something new can evolve,” mournfully observes Urna, the subject of Byambasuren Davao’s latest documentary. Ostensibly, the old thing of which she speaks is a song, The Two Horses of Genghis Khan, inscribed on the head and the neck of her grandmother’s violin, which was partially destroyed during the Cultural Revolution. Urna, driven by a promise to her deceased grandmother, journeys throughout Mongolia to have the violin rebuilt, and to locate the song’s missing verses. Davao’s documentaries are like no others: Gone is the familiar adherence to realism, replaced by a love of gorgeously composed shots and scenes with the polished and refined nature of narrative filmmaking. Even more than with her previous triumphs THE STORY OF THE WEEPING CAMEL (2003) and THE CAVE OF THE YELLOW DOG (2005), Davao is on a quest for meaning as traditional Mongolian culture asserts itself in the contemporary world.