A One Mann’s Movies review of “The Wolves Always Come at Night” (2024) (From the 2024 London Film Festival).
I went into this one without doing any homework. And while I was watching it I was thinking “Wow… what a brilliant and interesting fly-on-the-wall documentary! But then doubts started to creep in.
Bob the Movie Man Rating:
“The Wolves Always Come at Night” Plot Summary:
We follow Daavarusen and Zaya who have four kids and live in a family community on the plains of the Gobi desert. But global warming is having a big impact here and ‘desertification’ is driving rural families away from their traditional way of life.
Certification:
UK: NR; US: NR. (This has not yet been rated by the BBFC. I would expect it to be a ’12’.)
Talent:
Featuring: Davaasuren Dagvasuren, Otgonzaya Dashzeveg.
Directed by: Gabrielle Brady.
Written by: Gabrielle Brady, Davaasuren Dagvasuren & Otgonzaya Dashzeveg.
Running Time: 1h 35m.
“The Wolves Always Come at Night” Summary:
Positives:
- An insightful journey into the lives of wonderful family living a very different life.
- Makes you really appreciate the impact of global warming in the third world.
Negatives:
- You progressively realise that this is more ‘re-enactment’ than documentary.
Review of “The Wolves Always Come at Night”:
A Happy Family.
What first struck me about Daava and Zaya’s family is how happy and content they are. No iPads. No “Oh, please mum, why can’t I have an iPhone. THIS IS SO UNFAIR!” This is a simple but (generally) happy life, where the kids huddle around the fire to tell scary stories to each other! The parents have fun with the kids in bed, teasing and tickling them as ever we would with our kids/grandkids. Things legislated to death here are ignored out there: when they pile into a minibus there are no child seats… the young ‘uns are perched up on the dashboard!
Love for the animals.
What also shines through is Daava’s love for his animals. We see him helping two of his goats to have difficult births. And the love he has for his horses, particularly his prize stallion, is very touching. At one point, he has to sell the stallion to another farmer, and it breaks your heart to see them part.
Why?
What also struck me was WHY? Why would anyone try to make a life for themselves in such a remote and barren-looking place? The mother performs a tea-ritual in the morning, splashing tea into the air and chanting “Protect us Bright Golden Earth”. I’m not sure the Earth is listening. As the subsistence farmers complain at a (fascinating) regional meeting, “Two out of Three years are bad now” and all the talk is of increased desertification. All these people need is a little bit of grass to feed their livestock, but even that doesn’t seem to be forthcoming. You realise that out here, they are at the sharp end of global warming.
Why not?
So, as we see in the film, it all becomes too much and a disastrous storm forces the family to move house (literally!) and go to live in the Mongolian capital of Ulaanbaatar. (For pub trivia lovers, by the way, Ulaanbaatar means “Red Dawn” in Russian as it is the first point at which the sun rose on the old Soviet Empire. You’re welcome.)
As they approach the city, you see rolling hills that are not Hampshire-green or anything like it, but still about 5000% better than the land that they have just left. So I was asking myself why are they not carrying out their old life, but here instead? Is all of the land privately owned so that they can’t? Questions, questions.
A change of life
Of course, although Daava seems to have secured a paying job as a quarryman in the city, things are not all rosy. His kids never had to bawl their eyes out before when daddy went off to work. He is forced to work long hours and the change, from being literally the master of all he surveys to being a small cog in a big system, is stark.
But then… what’s real in all of this?
So, I was enjoying this and thinking what a good documentary it was. But then little doubts began to creep in. Was the camera filming Daava as he was awoken to a wolf’s cry in the night? Why, during an intimate conversation between Daava and Zaya in bed one night do we get intercut shots of both of them from different sides of the bed. (Were there really two cameras..? Shades of “Broadcast News”!) Why, when searching for his missing flock of goats, is the camera ahead of him to record his ‘reaction’ when he finds them dead? (“No animals were harmed in the making of this film” – really? Were they just drugged?)
The cherry on the cake is in the final scene when Daava is reunited with an old friend. Yeah, right!
Of course, I went into this without knowing that this was (as they call it) a “hybrid documentary”. As I now discover, the filmmakers have chosen to “blend documentary and magic realism to reconstruct the journey of Daava and Zaya”.
That’s all very well, but my view would be that some pre-title card describing that would help set your expectations. Because, as it is, I got to the end thinking that I had been conned.
Summary Thoughts on “The Wolves Always Come at Night”
Cutting and insightful this was nearly a great documentary for me. I just wish it had been pre-advertised for its ‘reconstructions’.
Where to Watch it (Powered by Justwatch)
At the time of writing, this movie wasn’t available on the Justwatch database.
Trailer for “The Wolves Always Come at Night”:
The trailer is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlEO2FTtlP0 .
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