City of the Steppes

JORIS IVENS AWARD

With almost no words, the film captures fragments of life in the town of Choyr in Mongolia, at a key moment in the fall of the Soviet empire, revealing the latter’s paradoxical aspects. “After 70 years of communism, the city stands like a scar on the Steppes and minds of the Mongolian people. The city as an encyclopedia of decaying traces from the past, of old values and new meanings, but also of people and their memories, desires and conflicts.” (Peter Brosens, Odo Halflants.)