Khadak
April 2008 Reviewed by: Mischa Hayek Format: DVD	(all ratings out of 5): Overall Enjoyment Picture Quality Packaged Extras Sound Quality

Winning awards at no less than ten film festivals worldwide in 2006 and 2007, Khadak (released internationally as The Colour of Water) is the story of a teenage boy, Bagi (Khayankhyarvaa Batzul), whose family is forced to abandon their nomadic existence as goat and sheep farmers on the Mongolian steppes and relocate to an urban settlement (circa the 1970s or early 1980s). One day government officials arrive at Bagi’s dwelling and tell Bagi and his family that there is an animal plague and the military will soon arrive to destroy all the animals. The boy’s mother (Dugarsuren Dagvadorj) and his grandfather (Banzar Damchaa) as well as the local shaman (Tserendarizav Dashnyam) are transported by truck with other families to a mining settlement, where it seems the only work available is open-pit coal mining.

However, Bagi suffers from epilepsy, and during his seizures he enters a dream world where he is free to travel and see what is happening miles away from his present location. In one of his visions, he sees the girl Zolzaya (Tsetsegee Byamba), a coal thief, buried in a coal car. Catching the train, he digs the girl out, and the two of them ride the coal train to another settlement, where they are caught by the military and forced to work clearing ice from a square with other thieves and convicts, several of whom are Zolzaya’s friends. In another of his dreams, Bagi realizes that there was no animal plague, that he and his kind were removed from the land to work in government mines and factories. Knowing this, Bagi organizes a revolt against the government forces.

Khadak co-director Peter Brosens has a great feel for Mongolia, having directed and produced three award-winning documentaries known collectively as the Mongolian Trilogy: City of the Steppes (1993), State of Dogs (1998) and Poets of Mongolia (1999). Along with co-director Jessica Woodworth, Brosens wrote the Khadak screenplay during a research trip in 2002. Brosens and Woodworth intended to make a documentary about aviation in Mongolia along with a parallel story about socialism when they realized they needed a fictional story rather than a documentary to express their ideas. In their own words, they describe Khadak as a film "about the human condition seen through a Mongolian prism with its ongoing movements and tensions between past and future, between growth and decay, between creation and destruction, between the search for meaning and the encounter with the absurd."

Khadak highlights many of the injustices inflicted on the native peoples under the communist system that remained in place in Mongolia until 1990, when Mongolia became a democracy, but it is a film without a resolution and largely an exercise in style. It is extraordinarily slow-moving. There is a dearth of conversation and many scenes of people with suffering looks on their faces staring into the horizon for long periods of time. Disjointed and edited in such a way that it is sometimes difficult to distinguish between the dream states and reality, Khadak is nonetheless visually stunning, thanks largely to director of photography, Rimvydas Leipus. Images will likely stay with you for a long time.

The DVD picture is vibrant, punchy and clean. There’s not that much to fault, and for a low-budget film like this, it’s very good overall. However, on an absolute scale, measured against reference-grade picture quality, it lacks some detail. Much the same can be said for the sound, which is full yet still quite clean. It’s never unimpressive; it just doesn’t bowl you over.

There is one bonus feature with this DVD release: a 27-minute feature on the making of the movie. This short documentary is very worthwhile, giving insight into the difficulties in making a film in the cold temperatures of Mongolia as well as highlighting what a collaborative effort filmmaking truly is.

Khadak is a film that you want to like because of its unique story and it being filmed in a faraway, exotic location. Unfortunately, it will likely only appeal to the existential-oriented filmgoer. Most audiences will find it very slow and will feel dissatisfied with the story’s conclusion.

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