La frontière, les steppes

After Russia, Mongolia was the second country that turned communist. Its population paid with total isolation, for the country was hermetically closed off for foreign visitors for seventy years. The collapse of the communist regime in Russia also caused a political revolution in Mongolia. The barriers were taken away and a democratising process got underway. Belgian filmmakers Peter Brosens and Odo Haflants visited Mongolia in 1993, when the first democratic elections were being held. They stayed for four months. The result of their work is an impressionistic, poetic film about a country in transition. The filmmakers shot their images particularly in the capital Ulan Bator and in the city of Choyr. The distinguishing features of their style are the long focus and the distance they keep to their subject. The reason is that they want to leave it up to the spectators to make their own choices.