Close to Eden (1991)

Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

It is a part of Inner Mongolia which seemed to be cut out from the outside world. But the city-bred Pagma is trying to resist the advances of her husband Gombo out on the plains. It would turn out that the married couple has three children, while Chinese law (which Inner Mongolia is part of China) limits Mongolian families to two children.There are also signs of modern influences in the hut the family lives in, even if Gombo raises sheep, cattle and horses, leading the live of a typical Mongolian nomad. A generator for electric light in the hut, Gombo's son wearing a baseball cap, his daughter who plays an accordion which was given to her by an uncle who lives in the city, the neighbour who seems to be drunk most of the time whenever Gombo and Pagma sees him who gives them a movie poster and swearing that it looks like his brother in America which actually shows Sylvester Stallone in Rambo.Gombo's seemingly normal life would be disrupted when he rescued Sergei, a Russian construction worker building the transcontinental road in Mogolia where his truck went to the edge of a lake. After initial awkward exchanges which happened at the hut when Sergei initially wondered what to do with the sheep which Gombo had killed and skinned, the two men from very different backgrounds began to feel at ease with each other.But there is also Pagma who had told Gombo to go to the city to get a television set and some condoms, other than Sergei wondering why he has to work outside of Russia while trying to get to grips with the demise of the Russian soul at a nightclub in the city with a fellow compatriot, which came at a time when the Soviet Union has already collapsed. Even with the unlikely friendship, there is the constant juxtaposition of what the intrusions of the modern age has in store for the two men who wants to cling on to their respective identities.It is not a film to understand easily on the surface as it forces to look at one's own identity as it connects with the world around him/her, but there are also the comic elements in the film like in the form of the drunken neighbour of Gombo and Pagma to provide the comic relief.For those who may be unaware of the various references shown and mentioned throughout the film, it can seem confusing at times, even towards the ending. But it is a reminder of how there are times when one wants to move forward with the times, there always seemed to be something holding one back reminding one's own identity in the first place.

Hollywood sometimes gets a bad rap. Whenever you hear of a "garbage" film, the name Hollywood often is used. I have news for you: "garbage" films are made ALL over the world. Nobody has a monopoly on them. The Brits, Spaniards, Italians, Japanese, Brazlians, etc., etc., all have their share of scummy films. Here, we get a collaboration of the Russians, Mongols and Chinese that combine to make a lousy movie.The Mongol kids were cute, but that was cute but that was about it for appealing facets of the film. The main character was profane and unlikable and the film had some stupid dialog throughout. That was probably the worst aspect of it, along with the fact that there was very little story here. It's mainly vignettes about a clash in cultures.I did like some of the cinematography, the panoramic shots of the "steppes" being the best. It was some this wonderful scenery that kept me going in this film, which will bore most audiences: I guarantee you. This is slow-going and not a real happy story and ending, either.

This is a film of so many pleasures - the delineation of a culture not usually represented in the mainstream; an empathetic, comic-sad, character-driven narrative; an awe-inspiring, Lean-like evocation of the vast lonely Mongolian landscape and its dwarfing of its inhabitants; its moments of genuine hilarity and sadness - that you are fully prepared to forgive its glaring flaws - its 'Westernising' an Oriental subject matter (lush composition, mobile camerawork and editing, excessive close-ups, epic music), unoriginal city/country dichotomy (although this is more complex than at first appears) and its maddening fudge into apocalyptic fantasy.

I had to embrace my aunt after seeing this movie for having brought me to see it. The images are beautiful and the relationships are, at times, complex but always touching. Never have I experienced a filmmaker able to capture the beautiful humanity of each of his characters and their gestures. This film is a treasure and quite possibly my favorite film of all time.