Gabrielle Brady’s The Island of Hungry Ghosts, a documentary about crab, has been on my watch list forever. Watching that may have to wait though because of her new documentary The Wolves Always Come At Night. Just like Island, this is much about humans as they are about the few animals that they care for. This time around, she captures rural Mongolians who tend to goat and horses, a community on the brink. They act normal, asking each other their situations during the spring of the year of the rabbit. That was last year, by the way, when the grass doesn’t grow as much as it normally does. The situation is becoming so dire that two members of the community lose most of their herd to desertification.
Reputably, Island showcases Christmas Island’s tropical rainforest, a paradise with lush flora covering up its dark side. This documentary is different, as it chooses to capture the physical differences between rural and exurban life in Mongolia. Rural Mongolia has its stone fences where goats can walk in and out, free just like their herders. Showing its dusty Mongolian habitations, The Wolves Always Come At Night anticipates changes that its subjects may experience. The sound design beautifully captures Otgonzaya Dashzeveg as she sings goodbye to the goats before finally letting them go. Eventually, she and her husband Davaasuren Dagvasuren also greet their fellow herders and telling them to take care. The documentary reminds us that people deserve the freedom from a changing world.
- Rated: NR
- Genre: Documentary
- Release Date: 9/9/2024
- Directed by: Gabrielle Brady
- Produced by: Ariunaa Tserenpil, Rita Walsh
- Studio: ARTE, BBC Storyville, Story Syndicate, SWR
