Tuya's Marriage

Though his film occasionally threatens to lunge into melodrama, Wang Quan’an’s blending of documentary-style realism with generic tropes – striking camerawork,  a pacy narrative, sharp editing, vivid characterisation – lends real impetus to the slight story of a Mongolian shepherdess struggling to support her kids and disabled husband. Reluctantly she agrees to his suggestion that she find a new partner; but she insists any suitor adopt the whole family, hubby included. Tuya’s attempts to achieve this make for an episodic but engrossing story. A refusal to pass judgment and a palpable chemistry between the actors ensure that the film succeeds both as a fable about the pitfalls of rapid modernisiation, and as tough, unsentimental drama.